What Changed?
by JinxTales
Summary: She was always alone so she was used to it, but some unforeseen events happened and now her life is too crowded. One, nope two. "No, these aren't mines." He shouted, waving his hands. "You think I'm going to believe you? It clearly has your name written on it." She then walked away like nothing happened. "Where do you think you're going?" He shouted. "Home." She simply replied.
1. Chapter 1: Hot and Cold

Disclaimer: Card Captor is not mine, but the story they play a role in is.

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Sakura Kinomoto sat silently in class her eyes casted out the window. She listened as the girls around her, who were also gathered by the window, squealed. Her eyes unconsciously traveled to the subject of their squeals, finding the group of boys who caused all the noise around her. Unfortunately for her, her twin brother was there also. She hated that other girls would come up to her to ask questions about her brother. She'd only ignored them, not answering any of their questions.

Her brother wasn't the only one popular with others either, apparently she was favored among the guys, the girls not so much. She had been confessed to one to many times, that at some point love for her had become overrated, something she shouldn't bother with. Being so popular with the guys, made girls hate her, if they didn't hate her already for not telling them anything about her brother. As a result she was given the title, Ice Queen. She sighed and turned her head. She couldn't wait for school to end. She didn't like all this noise.

It wasn't long before the first half of school finished and lunch arrived. Sakura stood, liking the fact that no one approached her, though she didn't know how long that would last. She exited the classroom, with two lunch boxes, sighing in relief when no one had stopped her. It was long into the school year, so there shouldn't have been anyone left to ask her out. It'd be strange with all the things that people said about her.

As she walked silently through the halls, she found the one person she was looking for before she went off to have her own lunch. She quietly approached the group of boys, ignoring the strange looks she got from those around her.

"Hey," She said, catching the group's attention. "Oi, Tenjikubotan."

"Sakura, how many times do I have to tell you to not call me by my entire first name. It's too long."

"You forgot this on the table." She replied, ignoring his wishes. "Forget it again and I'm not bringing it to you. Never mind, I'll just have Touya bring it you next time."

"No, don't do that."

By the time he said that she was already on her way. She listened as he cursed. She won this time as well. When it came to her brothers she always won, she was the only daughter in the family. When she made it her spot in the courtyard, she ate in silence.

As she sat there silently, she listened as a group walked past her. It was her brother's group again, and another famous group. She didn't get along with any of them. That group consisted of her brother, Tenjikubotan, Eriol Hiiragizawa, Jamie Han, Syaoran Li, Takashi Yamazaki, Tomoyo Daidouji, Chiharu Mihara, Rika Sasaki, and Naoko Yanagisawa. The girls of that group were just as popular as the guys, though she didn't understand why nobody hated them. They rejected as many guys as she has, and even hung out with the most wanted guys in school. It didn't make any sense to her, but she knew that that group and her could never get along. As she continued eating, the group stopped in front of her. She sighed, they weren't here to make fun of her were they? She quietly set her utensils down and glanced up. Her brother's idiotic face stare down at her.

"What?" She asked, not wanting to talk to him. She didn't know if he was here to make fun of her. He liked making fun of her, just like Touya, though Touya was nicer about it.

"Saw you from the window."

"And?"

"Just thought, that maybe you wanted to hang out with us?" He said. Sakura stared at her brother dumbfounded. She couldn't believe what her brother was saying. It was long into the school year, and this was the first time he was asking her to join his group of friends. As much as she'd like to try, it was already too late to join this group. Too many people already hated her, and that wasn't good for her brother. This also made her wonder why he suddenly wanted her to join them.

She quickly ate her food, and shoved past him. "Thanks, Ten-kun, but it's better if I don't." She quietly walked away leaving them in their stead.

As Tenjikubotan watched his sister walk away, a strange feeling slowly overcoming him. He sighed and shook his head. He didn't like the fact that they were siblings as she was so badly talked about. Because they were siblings he knew everything that everyone said about her wasn't true. She wasn't cold or cruel, she was just honest. She wasn't going to date someone she didn't like, nor was she going to give out information about him, but because she didn't people hated her for it, a stupid reason to hate her, but still a reason.

He sighed and shook his head, wondering if she was ever going to make friends. It had always been like this since they were little, though she did have one or two friends back then. Thinking about the past, he wondered when she became like that. She had one or two friends back then, but she was still popular. He wondered why things had to go change. She was a nice person, and only four people knew that.

"Ten-kun?" Tenjikubotan quickly turned around and stared at his friends.

"Ah, he responded." Eriol Hiiragizawa said, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Don't call me that. It's Tenji to you guys and everyone else. Only Sakura can call me Ten-kun." He sternly said, glaring at his friends.

"Didn't know he had a sister complex." Jamie Han, joked, earning a punch from Tenji. Tenji shook his head and turned to look back in the direction his sister went. Her figure was long gone, but the thoughts that he had were still there. He hoped that one of these days, she'd return back to normal.

"Alright let's go." Syaoran Li said dismissively.

As they walked Tenji listened as they talked about anything and everything. There were topics on the new games and sports with the boys, while the girls, surprising talked about not makeup, but food and music. Every once in awhile the entire group would talk about something they all had in common like a new family restaurant that had open. Naoko suggested that they drop by to get a taste of the food. Once it was agreed that they were going to the family restaurant, the groups split into two groups of conversation. He only listened as they talk and only talked when he had something to say about a certain thing.

"Ne, Tenji-kun." It was Tomoyo. Tenji turned to look at her giving her his full attention.

"Yeah, what's up?" He replied.

"About your sister," She trailed off not knowing how to continue the conversation.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"How does one become friends with her?" She asked her hands touching at the tips of her fingers. It was strange to see Tomoyo this hesitated. For all the years he's known her, she never really hesitated before. She was a gungho kind of person. "I mean, I've always wanted to become friends with her, though the chance never came. She was always gone before I knew it, and then it became like this. Hard to approach her."

Tenji stopped in his track and sighed. "Tomoyo, just do it like you've always done it. If Sakura looks annoyed, she's probably not. It's just been awhile since someone actually wanted to be friends with her. She's forgotten what real friendship is."

"That's a sad thought."

"But if you want to be friends with her, then go be friends with her. I'll only help if it looks like you can't get anywhere. She'll crack. She's too nice to not say yes to a friendship."

"Another question?" At this point, their other friends had stopped to watch them, though they were farther away.

"Shoot away."

"What made her like that?"

"I'm not sure really. I think it's because of people who want to get close to me through her, but she doesn't allow it, but something as simple as that shouldn't stop her from making friends. So I can't really say."

"Well, uh, thanks for the advice. Next time I see her, I'll try talking to her."

"Don't get too discourage if she knocks you down. Just keep trying. It'll work eventually. And I hope you do become friends with her. She's too invested in her family to care about anyone else."

"It didn't seem that way to me. It looked like she didn't want to talk to you." The statement had him questioning himself again.

"Well, she's not like that at home." He said, more to try and convince himself that their relationship wasn't straining.

After school Sakura quietly and quickly left before anyone could stop her. She was ready to leave school. As she was leaving, she notice her brother and his group of friends outside. It was strange to see them leaving first when they were all together. She was one person, how did she leave later than them. Just as she was walking down the stairs, a teacher had stopped her. She sighed and decided that whatever it was it was probably just them wanting help.

Just as she thought it was just the teacher asking for help. She helped the teacher carry some papers to the office before she was finally able to leave. The school by then was still half full, with students doing club activities or with students just hanging out waiting for other friends. The teacher had thanked her before she left. As she was walking home, something at the corner of her eyes caught her attention.

It was Syaoran Li. He was standing in front of what she assumed was his house. He looked as if he was pulling his hair out. She didn't know why, but he was. She decided that she wasn't going to bother with whatever it was that troubled him. When she finally decided to leave it was too late.

"Ah! Tenji's sister!" He was quick to grab her and pull her towards him. "Help me." He said desperately. She looked at him with raised brows.

"No, I don't want to get involved with. . . with this." She gestured to all of him.

"You just gestured to all of me."

"I know."

"Forget that, I'm serious. Help me out."

"No." Then there was a cry. . . two cries. Sakura looked at Syaoran, and then past him. Sitting in a box at his front door, were two kids. Both about a year and half. Posted on the box was a note, with his name one it. Sakura glanced back at him with a face of disgust.

"It's not what you think."

"It doesn't seem like it."

"No these aren't mines." He shouted waving his hands.

"You think I'm going to believe you? It clearly has your name written on it." She then walked away like nothing happened.

"Where do you think you're going?" He shouted, grabbing on to her hands again.

"Home." She simply replied.

"No, help me. I can't deal with these two alone."

"I thought they weren't yours."

"They're not."

"So, your gonna leave them, cause they're not yours."

"No."

"Then what're you gonna do?"

"Help me. Please." A strange thought struck her as she stood there. The Syaoran Li was begging her for help. It was a once in lifetime thing, something this rare was never going to come by again, and she couldn't leave two kids alone with this guy, who probably didn't even know how to take care of them, or that was what her reasoning was before she decided that she was going to help him.

"Fine." She simply said walking past him, and towards the children.


	2. Chapter 2: Two Suns? Sons?

Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura is not mine, the story the characters play a role in is mine.

Please read and review. Enjoy!

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Syaoran Li watched as Sakura Kinomoto held on of two children in her arms, reading the notebook that was left with them. After they had brought the kids into the house, they found out that they were his distant cousin's children. Apparently their father and mother had passed away in a car accident and they didn't have anyone who wanted to take care of them. This made him wonder why his family didn't want to take care of them, he was still in high school and he couldn't take care of them.

After sometime he had called his family, who were in Hong Kong, to ask them why they had left them with him. He learned that since he was in Japan he was the closest to the children's family, so he had to take care them until his parent found time to come and get them. To him it was a bullshit answer, he knew exactly why they left the kids to him, and it was because they didn't want to take care of them. He sighed and rested his chin on top of one of the children.

"Could you not be like that." He glanced up at Sakura, who was scowling at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Being depressed and angry. You'll rub off on the kids."

"So, did you figure out their names?" Syaoran asked.

"Yeah. The blonde one is Keroberos, and the dark hair one is, Spinel."

"Those are some strange names."

"I agree, but whatever. Anyways, to make our lives easier and less weird, we'll just call them Kero and Suppie. Easier to say than their entire first name."

By the time it was nine, Sakura was getting ready to leave. Syaoran, wasn't sure if he'd be able to last with these children here. He sighed watching as Sakura walked towards the door. "Hey, see you tomorrow?" He watched as Sakura turned around and looked at him.

"I guess." She replied.

"And thanks."

"Sure." Then she was gone.

That night Syaoran stared at the kids who slept on his futon. He sighed, wondering how he was going to get any sleep that night. He was sure they were going to wake up sometime in the middle of the night, and he didn't know how he was going to handle it. Tonight he was able to get by because Sakura was there. He didn't know what he would do if they woke up in the middle of the night.

When the next day arrived Syaoran groaned at the sound of his alarm clock. That night he hardly got any sleep. The twins had woken up four times that night for several reasons. Twice because they missed their parents, once because of each other and twice because they needed a diaper change. It wasn't until four in the morning did he finally got to sleep. He looked at the time, and his eyes widen. It was almost eight. He sighed and got up. He only got three almost four hours of sleep.

He quickly got ready for school, grabbing the twins as he left his house. He ran with all his strength to school, catching his group of friends as they walked onto school grounds. Seeing Tenji, his eyes scanned the crowd for Sakura, only to see that she wasn't anywhere in sight. He sighed, quickly catching up with his friends.

"Hey, Tenji, where's your sister?"

"What's with the kids." Tenji asked, looking at the kids who clung onto Syaoran's chest. They both held smiles, as the run had exhilarated them.

"They don't matter right now, answer my question."

"She leaves the house early, so she's already probably in her classroom."

Syaoran quickly thanked Tenji before darting into the school. It didn't take him long before he found Sakura. She sat quietly at her desk, her eyes casted outside. It seemed like she was watching someone or something. Syaoran quickly made his way towards, Sakura, plopping Kero on top of her desk. She looked at Kero with a smile before glancing up at him with a frown. He didn't like that. Why did he get a frown while the kid got a smile. He really didn't like that.

"What's Kero and Suppie doing here?" She asked, smiling at Suppie who sat in Syaoran's arms. Yep, he really didn't like that.

"It's too sudden to drop them off at a daycare and I can't leave them at home alone."

"And what am I supposed to do about it?" She looked at him, the smile gone. It really irritated him that she didn't smile at him. She was cute when she smiled.

"I don't know, I came to see if you have any ideas?"

"First, why don't you go to the Principal and explain it to him. I'm sure he'll watch them. . . and if not then, my parents can watch them or if they can't then maybe Touya."

"See, I knew coming to you for help would work." He looked at Suppie and smiled. "See, Sakura's smart. Smarter than me." He then grabbed Kero and walked off to the Principal's office. Just as he was leaving he stopped at the door and turned to face Sakura again with raised brows.

"What?" She asked.

"Your not coming?"

A smile adorn on his face when she groaned and stood up, following after him. As they made their way out of the classroom, he felt strange. It felt like people were staring at them. It'd make sense because he held two kids in his hands, but it felt different. It wasn't curiosity he was feeling it was something else. He glanced around, noticing as everyone was staring at them, but it wasn't just them, it was someone specific. He glanced back at Sakura, who walked with her head up. He thought that it'd be the opposite, rather than looking up down because she was not used to it.

"What?" She asked noticing his stare.

"Are you used to this?"

"What?"

"These stupid stares that make people uncomfortable."

"No, but it's not gonna change anytime soon." She replied. "You just ignore it because they won't do anything to you."

It wasn't long before they reached the Principal's office. They were welcomed in and Syaoran quickly explained the situation to him. The Principal smiled, agreeing to watch the two kids for today, but afterwards they'd have to find someone to watch them afterwards. Syaoran thanked the Principal before the two left. They stood quietly in front of the Principal's office before leaving.

As they walked, they noticed Tenji and his group of friends making their way towards them. When they met, no one but Tenji and Syaoran noticed as Sakura silently slipped away. Syaoran sighed wondering why Sakura was like that. He realized that Sakura was nice, she just wasn't showing it.

"What're you looking at?" Tenji asked.

"Nothing."

"Anyways, what's with those kids this morning?" There was a slight pause before Tenji gasped, covering his mouth with his hand. "Don't tell me they're yours."

"They're not. They're my distant cousins. I just happened to be close enough for them to be dropped off at my place." Syaoran argued, his eyes never leaving the disappearing figure of Sakura Kinomoto.

It wasn't long before the first half of school ended, and lunch arrived. As always, Syaoran was quickly found by his friends, and all of them gathered by the window, just chilling and eating. His eyes wandered from the group to the courtyard where everyone, but them, usually ate. His eyes unconsciously found the lone person, name Sakura sitting under the center tree. She ate quietly, and looked as though she was thinking about something. As if she had known he was looking, she glanced at him. As soon as they locked eyes Syaoran quickly looked away. When he looked back to see if she was still staring, she finished her food and was getting ready to leave her spot. When she finally disappeared into the school, he sighed wondering why he was unconsciously looking for her.

After sometime he realized that Kero and Suppie were still here and needed to be fed. Syaoran quickly stood, dismissing himself from the group and quickly made his way to the Principal's office. When he arrived he was surprised to see that Sakura was there also. She was talking with the Principal while holding Suppie in her arms. His presence there was still unnoticed by the two. His eyes traveled around looking for the other twin and found him sitting on a chair making baby noises. He squealed happily when he saw Syaoran. He watched as Sakura and the Principal turned around.

"Oh, uh, your here." Sakura mumbled. "The Principal already fed them, so you don't have to."

"Uh, right." Syaoran silently walked over to Kero and picked him up.

"Well, if your here, then I'll get going."

"Kinomoto-san, remember what I said." The Principal said.

"I won't forget.."

Syaoran watched as Sakura left, wondering if she was avoiding him. She was always quick to leave, when it came with anything with her brother. It was strange and he didn't understand it. With a sigh he looked back at Kero, who still smiled at him.

"I don't get her." He mumbled to himself.

Outside the Principal's office Sakura sighed. She looked back at the doors before leaving. She was trying to lead her life as always, but that had changed after Kero and Suppie arrived. She couldn't ignore them because they were children and she didn't trust Syaoran to take of them, but because of that she could see her future becoming grim. She could already feel the hatred the girls were giving off.

Well it's not like she minded. It was nothing new, and it wasn't like they were going to take care of the children. She sighed and continued on her way, and as she did she ran across her brother, who was with Tomoyo Daidouji. She sighed. She was really unlucky today.

"Hey, sis." Tenji said walking up to her, Tomoyo walking close behind.

"What?" She asked. It wasn't like Tenji to talk to her during school. He was usually too busy with his friends to realize she was there.

"Hey, is that how you greet your brother?"

"It is. Now, what?" She was just trying to leave as soon as possible. She didn't want Syaoran to catch up because she was sure he was going to ask her to help out after school. She had things to do after school that couldn't be rescheduled for him. She watched as her brother sighed and shrugged his shoulders looking back at Tomoyo.

"Are you doing anything after school?" Tenji asked.

"Yes."

"It's not homework is it?"

"No."

"Then come hang out with us."

"Can't, got things to do. Didn't you hear me?"

"I know, but it's probably just homework."

"It's not, so Tenjikubotan, leave me be." Sakura looked behind her hearing the sound of the door opening and closing. Great she couldn't leave in time. "If you want to talk let's talk when we get home."

"Sakura, you know that's not gonna happen." And before he knew it Sakura was halfway down the hall.

"What was that about?" Syaoran asked, looking at Sakura's figure.

"Tenji-kun was trying to get her to hangout with us after school. She didn't want to and then left. Do you know what she's doing after school?" Tomoyo responded.

"No, but Tenji, can I have her number. I need her help with something." Tomoyo looked at Tenji who looked back at her with wide eyes. He turned to face Syaoran and glared at him. "It's not what you think. She said she was going to help me with the kids, but now that she has something going on I don't know if she'll come over or not. And she hard to catch. She's there and then not. Finding a chance to talk to her is hard."

"I know what you mean." Tomoyo said.

As school finally came to an end Sakura quickly gathered her things. She did her best avoiding Syaoran and Tenji, but now that the day was over how was she going to escape. She was due to the Principal's office and that was a secret.

Sakura quickly walked through the halls avoiding unnecessary confrontation. If she made it to the Principal's office then she was safe, but if she was stopped before then, then it'd take her longer to finish her job with the Principal.

She sighed with relief when she the doors to the Principal's office was in view and she wasn't stopped. As she approached the door her subtle smile became more evident. Just as she was coming up on the Principal's office, she noticed as the doors open and two people walked out. She sighed. She had lost the battle. It was Tenji and Syaoran.

"Sakura?" Tenji said. "What're you still doing here? I thought you had something to do."

"I do."

"Then what're you doing here."

"That, Ten-kun, is none of your business." Sakura quickly pushed past them and towards the Principal's office, but was stopped by a hand that grabbed hers. She quickly turned around and saw that it had been Syaoran that stopped her.

"You. . ."

"Yes, later though because I have something to do." Syaoran let go of Sakura, and watched as she slipped into the Prhincipal's office. The two boys looked at one another before leaving.

"Are you sure there's nothing going on between you and her?" Tenji asked, looking at Syaoran with suspicious eyes.

"No. There isn't. She's just helping me out with them. If you didn't know, she's really good with kids. She's not an older sister is she?Your the older one, right?"

"Yeah, I'm the older one, and were the youngest so. . . I don't know why she's good at taking care of them, in fact I didn't even know she could take care of them."


	3. Chapter 3: Good Night and Good Morning

Disclaimer: I do not own CCS, but the stories the characters play a role in is mines.

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Syaoran glanced at the clock, when someone knocked on the door. It was eight, almost nine. Syaoran slowly made his way to the door, Kero on his shoulders and Suppie in his arms. He knew he couldn't leave them alone in his room, they'd wreck havoc in his room, and that was something he wasn't going to let happen. He slowly opened the door relieved when it was Sakura.

"Hey." He said, letting her in. She didn't respond and took Suppie from him. He let Kero down from his shoulders and held him in his arms. "So, what'cha ya doing?" He asked hoping to get a conversation out of her. She didn't answer only tending to Suppie.

"Did they take a bath yet?" She asked turning to face him. Of course she was only here for the twins. He was nothing to her.

"No, we were waiting for you."

"I'm not going in with you guys." She said. "Dinner?" He stared blankly at her, did she just throw a joke. That was something he had not expected out of her.

"Hmm?" Syaoran hummed, not know what to expect anymore.

"Have you guys eaten yet?"

"No. Again we were waiting for you." He watched as she sighed and shook her head. It never occured to him that there might have been a chance she wouldn't show up because it was getting close to nine, way past her bedtime.

"Okay, you guys go take a bath, and I'll make something to eat. Then I have to get going. I've homework to do." She paused and walked past him. "When are your parents coming back?"

"They don't live here?" Sakura stopped and looked at him. "They live in Hong Kong. I'm here because I don't want to be in Hong Kong, but as soon as I graduate I have to go back."

"Then why do you live in this house?"

"Because it's theirs. They use this place when they visit Japan. Better living here then renting somewhere. Here it's free. Well at least for me it is."

"Then when are they coming to pick these two up?" Sakura asked. He shrugged.

"They're busy people. I don't know when the next time they'll be visiting."

"Anyways. . . just give them a bath. I'm going to make something to eat."

"Are you eating."

"Yeah, they've already eaten at my place and I told them I wasn't going to be at dinner so they probably don't have any left for me." Sakura walked into the kitchen and looked around. There wasn't much but still something to cook with. She reminded herself that one of these days she had to go buy them some food. It would be bad to keep the twins here if there was no food for them to eat. "Anyways, you should hurry up, so they can sleep." She watch as he nodded before he went off to another room. She listened silently as Syaoran struggled pulling their clothes off and ushering them into the bathroom. She quietly listened to all the noise they made inside the bathroom. Syaoran's laugh was more prominent than the twins who squeal and laughed. They sounded like they were having fun.

About thirty minutes later did they finally come out of the bath. Sakura by then had quickly made something to eat, and they all ate quietly. When they had finished, Sakura and Syaoran put the twins to bed before sitting quietly in the living room.

"Well, I'm gonna go." Sakura said awkwardly, as she stood.

"Yeah, okay." Syaoran responded. "You coming tomorrow. . . uh, morning?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll come early and drop them off at home, have dad take them to mom."

"What time?"

"Six." That was way too early to be waking up with the twins around.

"I'll try. I don't know if I'll get any sleep tonight."

"Well, if all else fails then I'll just call you."

"You have my number?"

"No, but my brother does."

"How 'bout I just give it to you? He's kind of. . . yeah."

"I guess." They exchanged numbers, and Sakura soon left his house. Syaoran looked down at his phone at looked at the numbers. There were his family, then his friends, and then Sakura's number. He was probably the only one who had it that wasn't her family. It somehow made him happy.

Syaoran silently walked to his room and laid down next to the twins, hoping they wouldn't wake up a billion times that night. Syaoran looked at his phone one more time before sending Sakura text. His eyes widen when he got a reply. He didn't think he would. He also didn't think that he would feel this happy over a small text like 'good night'.

The next morning at exactly six, he got a phone call from Sakura. He was quick to answer it, not wanting to destroy whatever relationship they had. He quickly put on his school uniform. With all the noise he was making, he woke the twins up. He groaned when they began crying. He quickly picked them up in his arms before rushing to the door.

Sakura watched as the door swung open and Syaoran and the twins stood in front of her. His hair and clothes were all messy, making her think differently about him. If he was like this now, when he had kids he was going to struggle even harder, when he had his own kids. The thought of him struggling was comical, and that though had her laughing to herself. Sighing she walked towards him, taking Kero out of his arms.

"Morning." Syaoran said with a yawn.

"Good morning." Sakura replied, trying to get Suppie as well. She failed to when Syaoran pulled away.

"I've got to take them to my dad so he can take them to my mom." The statement picked at his curiosity, wondering if her parents were divorced. Parents only lived separately if they were divorced, though he knew that asking something like that wasn't right since he didn't really know anything about her. He didn't want to pry into anything, at least not yet, and he could always ask Tenji about it later.

"I'll come with. It won't hurt." Syaoran said. "Plus, carrying two of them can be pretty heavy." He smiled watching as Sakura groaned. He scored a point.

"Come on." She then led the way to her house.

As they walked, Syaoran watched Sakura talk to Kero, it seemed in a kind of way that only babies understood. He watched as Kero smiled and clapped his hands, making Sakura smile as well. He watched intently, not wanting to miss the rare moment. The Sakura he knew at school was cold and dismissive. She only talked when she needed to and never made any trouble. She was never in any kind of trouble. She made it even more impossible to drag into a problem because she stay away from his group of friends.

When they arrived at her house, he was let into the house. Inside he found that it hadn't really changed since the last time he's come. Last time he came with Tenji, but the two of them hung out in Tenji's room, he never really saw Sakura, making him forget that the two were actually siblings. They walked past the kitchen and dining room, and walked towards the living room. She sat Kero on the sofa before making her way towards the kitchen again.

"I'll go tell my dad that they're here. Then he can take them to mom. Then I'm gonna go. You can wait here for Tenji. He's still getting ready."

"I'll go with you. It'd be awkward waiting for your brother."

"Whatever then."

Syaoran followed Sakura to the kitchen, watching as she spoke with her father. To him, it was strange, seeing her with her guard down. She naturally smiled with her father and spoke with enthusiasm. It seemed more real than what she was like at school. If she was like this at school, he was sure she'd be more popular, and people would probability become friends with her. The thought made him a little irritated, but at the same time relieved. He didn't like seeing her alone all the time. It wasn't long after that did they finally leave her house to go to school.

Tomoyo Daidouji silently walked to school. She had her bag in front of her and she walked with elegance. As she walked past other students who were also walking to school she greeted them with a good morning, receiving one back or a squeal. She was known to have fans from both genders, a fact that didn't bother her much. As she thought of everyone who were friends with her, Sakura came to her mind. The thought of Sakura not being friend made her a little upset. She was probably the one person she wanted to be friends with. She was friends with Sakura's brother, so why not her as well.

She was told by Tenji that Sakura was a nice person, and from what Tomoyo could tell she was. Sakura was always able to somehow manage to stop whatever problems that arose in the classrooms. Although she wasn't credited for it because she handled it from the back. That was the one thing that no one knew about Sakura, except her of course. Not even Tenji knew about her shadowed work. How she figured it out was that she caught Sakura doing it one day. She caught Sakura talking to somebody, a problem child you could say, and not even a week later said problem child was no longer a problem child.

It was strange to her that said person didn't become friends with Sakura. If it were her, she would've become friends with Sakura. Sakura was a nice person even if it didn't look like it. She sighed, thinking about it only stressed her out, and she didn't like being stressed. She should probably just go ahead and follow what Tenji said. To just talk to her even if she didn't care, though she highly doubted that Sakura didn't care. She was sure that Sakura knew everyone's names, and maybe birthdays. Sakura probably knew everyone at the school, but everyone didn't like her.

When she reached the school, she found that she was the first to arrive at their meeting spot. It was the tree next to the gate where she and her friends would gather and hang out before school. She wasn't usually the first one there, it was usually Eriol or Naoko. She didn't know why they were always early, but it didn't matter. She glanced around wondering if anyone else had arrived, and as she did something peculiar caught her attention.

It was Syaoran and Sakura. They were walking together, or maybe separately since they weren't talking, but they were close enough to make it look like they were walking together. She waited for them to come closer before bounding over to them. They stopped in their tracks to watch her.

"Good morning Syaoran, Sakura-chan."

"Morning Tomoyo." Syaoran replied. They watched as Sakura paused for a moment before continuing. Tomoyo sighed. Sakura wasn't going to greet her. They weren't friends. That was the usual Sakura treatment.

"Good morning Daidouji-san."Sakura's miniscule voice said as she walked away. Tomoyo immediately perked up and looked at Syaoran. Syaoran raised a brow wondering what she wanted him to do. Did she want him to praise her or something?

"So, what were you doing with Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo asked.

"Nothing. We just happened to meet on the way." He lied.

Tomoyo nodded her head and said, "Sure." not believing a word he said. Lately he had been really close to her, something that was strange for everyone in the school.

"What?"

"Nothing." Tomoyo said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." There was a short pause before Tomoyo began talking again, "Hey, how'd you get close to Sakura. You're the first person who isn't family to be close to her."

"I'm not that close with her. It feels like she hates me." Syaoran said honestly.

"Maybe." Tomoyo said, a smiling appearing on her face, when Syaoran looked at her with disbelief. "Just kidding. Don't take it serious."

"Sure." Syaoran said sarcastically, he was going to take it serious because it could be true.

It wasn't long after that did another a couple of their friends appeared. Tomoyo smiled watching as her friends talked to one another. As she stood there listening, the image of Sakura blending in with the group appeared in her mind. The image of a smiling Sakura made her heart race. It would be a nice scene. She had seen Sakura smile once before and that was at the entrance ceremony on the first day of school. She was looking up at the cherry blossoms, and it seemed as if she was at peace with herself, but that was the only time she ever saw Sakura smile, after that it was glares, and emotionless faces.

If she could imagine Sakura smiling and getting along with them then, getting Sakura to actually do that wasn't impossible. It would be one of her goals. She would become Sakura's best friend and the two of them would talk about everything and anything because that's what bestfriends did. Then she'd somehow convince Sakura to hangout with them, then everything would fall into place naturally. She would naturally hangout with them every day like it had always been that way since the beginning.

The thought made Tomoyo's smile grow. She was going to just that. It didn't matter to her if people didn't like Sakura. She liked Sakura, and she could tell that Sakura wasn't as cold as people said she was. Her goal this year was to become Sakura's best friend, no matter what. It was as Tenji said to her once before a long time ago. Sakura was just misunderstood, though it made no sense to Tomoyo how she was misunderstood. All Sakura was was honest and very straight forward.

Syaoran glanced at Tomoyo and raised a brow. He knew that Tomoyo was planning something. He hoped that whatever it was that she was planning didn't lead into a bunch of trouble. A lot of her plans led to trouble but everyone did it anyways. He was going to help her if she needed help that's what friends do.

"Do you wanna wait here or should we go inside?" Syaoran asked.

"Well wait for everyone else." She responded turning to face the gate again.

"Okay."

* * *

A/N: This story isn't really what you think it is.

And thanks to those who read my story. It made we want to keep writing, so I'm gonna keep writing.


	4. Chapter 4: Zero to One

Alright, I'm doing good at updating... hopefully it stays that way.

Disclaimer: I do not own CCS, but the stories the characters play a role in is mines.

And now enjoy!

* * *

Lately something had felt off, like she was attracting more attention than usual although it didn't look like it. It was that or someone was doomed to enter her life, and that was something she didn't want. Sakura sighed, and leaned back against her chair. She turned her head and looked out the window. Break was only five minutes. There wasn't enough to quickly run to the Principal's office and not be late. She rather do one of his jobs rather than sit here. That way people couldn't bother her, but it was likely that the Principal wasn't goning to let her skip class.

As she sat there thinking she didn't notice as someone walked up to her. It was only when she saw their reflection did she notice they were there. She turned to face them, her usual go away face on. The person who had approached her was the same girl that said good morning to her this morning. Ever since she had said good morning to the girl, she found that it gave the girl a reason to talk to her. It was Tomoyo Daidouji, one of the most gungho girl's in school, coincidentally and unfortunately one of the more popular ones.

"What?" Sakura asked, trying to dismiss the girl who seemed to not get that she was being dismissive.

"What're you doing for lunch?" She asked. It seemed to Sakura that the girl didn't care about all the stares they got from everyone around them.

"The same thing I do everyday." Sakura responded, hoping that Tomoyo understood the hidden message, though for some reason it felt like Tomoyo didn't care to read into it or more like read it as something completely different.

"Can I join you?" Tomoyo asked. It was just as Sakura thought. Tomoyo didn't care to read the hidden message, or read it differently. She knew how Tomoyo worked, but she was sure that Tomoyo didn't know how she worked.

"I said I was going to spend it the same way I always did." Sakura repeated hoping that this time Tomoyo would back off.

"Yeah, I heard what you said. And I'm going to change that." Tomoyo said as if she already had.

"Do you not understand that I―" The bell rang, cutting her off. Sakura watch as Tomoyo triumphantly walked out of her classroom as if she had won the conversation. Stupid bell, Sakura thought as she leaned back in her chair again.

When Tomoyo arrived at her class, she wasn't questioned on why she was late. Tomoyo quickly took a seat and listened to the teacher as he began talking. There was only a couple more hours until lunch. She couldn't wait to see the look on Sakura's face when she shows up to eat lunch with her. She just hoped that Sakura didn't suddenly change spots.

Lunch had arrived quickly, and Tomoyo was quick to leave her seat. She disregarded the looks her friends gave her, and hurried to find Sakura. A smile appeared on her face when she found that Sakura had only just left her classroom. Tomoyo quickly bounded over to Sakura, hooking her arm into Sakura's. Sakura jumped in surprised and look at Tomoyo.

"What're you doing here?" Sakura asked, trying to get Tomoyo off of her.

"To eat lunch with you. I thought I told you earlier."

"I thought I told you I was going to eat alone."

"Well, now Sakura-chan, let's get going." Tomoyo said, ignoring her words. Sakura pushed at Tomoyo as Tomoyo dragged Sakura to her usual eating spot.

Tenji looked around noticing that Tomoyo had not arrived for lunch. He stopped and glanced at Eriol who shrugged his shoulders not knowing where the girl was. Tenji sighed, he was sure that Tomoyo was here. He remembered seeing her. He sighed once more. It didn't matter where Tomoyo was, she was her own person. A laugh came from the group, and he returned back to the conversation.

"Eh, is that Tomoyo?" Syaoran said, looking out the window. Tenji quickly peered out the window just as the rest of his friends had done, and his eyes widen when he saw that she was sitting with Sakura, who didn't look like she wanted to be there. "She's with Sakura."

Tenji turned to look at Syaoran. He had been suspicious of him long ago, though he had never found proof. It was strange the Syaoran never wanted to eat anywhere but at his desk, and Tenji thought he knew why. That thought had grown stronger everyday after Syaoran was left to take care of Kero and Suppie. From here he had a perfect view of Sakura, who was always alone. Tenji glared at Syaoran, who turned to look at him.

"What was that?" Syaoran asked.

"Nothing." Tenji said, though Syaoran could tell it wasn't nothing. "It's nothing until I find something." Tenji said, lightly shoving Syaoran.

"Okay?" Syaoran said. "Hmm? I kind of wonder what they're talking about."

"Maybe you?" Eriol said, drinking his green tea. Syaoran glared at Eriol, who laughed at him.

"Or, how she doesn't want Tomoyo there." Tenji said, looking back at the two girls, a smile on his face watching as Sakura pushed Tomoyo away, who seemed to be enjoying their time. Seeing Sakura with Tomoyo made him feel at ease. It looked like they were friends, and he was glad that if anyone could be Sakura's friend that it was Tomoyo. He knew Tomoyo was a trustworthy person. They had known each for a couple of years now, and in those years she had been a really nice person.

Tenji then glanced over at Syaoran again, not sure how he felt about Syaoran almost being Sakura's friend. He was glad it was another one of his friends, but it was Syaoran. The kid that he had suspicions on. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. If Syaoran hadn't gotten Sakura tied into his mess, then Tomoyo would have never gotten the chance to steel Sakura's attention. He shook his head, taking back his unsaid statement. Tomoyo would have eventually been able to talk to Sakura, but it would've been way later.

"Dude, what are you thinking about?" Jamie said, his brows raised. "You look so stupid."

Tenji glared at Jamie. "That Jamie is none of your business."

"It is when you look stupid about it." Jamie replied, making their group of friends laugh. Tenji punched Jamie lightly, who laughed at his pitiful punch. Jamies eyes unconsciously traveled to Sakura who was still trying to push Tomoyo away. He wondered why so many people were obsessed with someone who was always alone. He didn't understand what people saw in her. She was just. . . normal.

School quickly came to an end and Syaoran was quickly off to go pick up the twins. Jamie watched as said man rushed out of the classroom, apologizing to his friends that he couldn't hang out with them. Jamie sighed and stood from his desk, getting ready to leave. Their group of friends was splitting up for today. Rika had piano lessons, and Naoko was off to the library somewhere he didn't want to be. Eriol, off doing who knows what, Takashi and Chiharu were probably gonna go on a date, somewhere he also didn't want to be.

His thoughts then traveled to Tomoyo who was already gone before the bell could ring. She had probably went to bother Tenji's sister again, something that he couldn't understand. He sighed, wondering if everyday was going to be like this from now on. He remember just yesterday that all of them were hanging out like every day was their last day and now everyone was doing their own things. It was because of Tenji's sister that they all stopped hanging out.

As Jamie walked through town, he glanced around noticing that kids from his school were still out and about. Of course they were, they were freed to do anything until night. He was bored and hungry, but he could only do one. He could either keep himself from being bored, or eat. He couldn't do both, he didn't have the money to do both, or at least he didn't want to spend that much money on both. He decided that he was just going to eat and then go home. There was no point in staying out if he wasn't with his friends. Everything was boring if he wasn't with somebody.

Jamie walked to the nearest convenience store and was greeted by the staff. He glanced around wondering what he was going to get, and as he did he noticed the one person that had everyone's attention. It was Tenji's sister, Sakura Kinomoto. She stood staring at the pet food, making him wonder if she had any pets. He didn't remember Tenji having a pet in the house, so it was strange.

He watched as she grabbed a couple cans of both dog food and cat food before grabbing herself some pudding. Pudding, a childish snack, though super delicious. Wondering what she was going to do with the pet food he quickly grabbed himself something to eat and followed after her. He stood behind her in the line, not looking at her. It wasn't long before the both of them paid for their things and they were outside.

Jamie quietly followed Sakura who walked with her hands behind her back. She talked quietly to herself, making hi, wonder what she was planning. It wasn't long before they arrived at the run down shrine. His eyes widen wondering what she was going to do. He watched as she scampered behind the shrine. With much curiosity he slowly made his way after her.

"Here you go." Her soft voice said from behind the shrine. Jamie peeked around the corner, watching as she pulled open the can of food. Sakura was squatted on the floor, with a white cat sitting in front of her. He didn't know that there were animals back here. As he watched her his cocked a brow wondering why she pulled open the other two cans of cat food. His eyes widened when four more kittens came out from beneath the shrine.

"Eat up, this is all for you." He could hear the cheerfulness in her voice as she spoke with the kittens. When they had finished eating, she petted them before standing. She dusted herself off before turning his way. He quickly pulled himself away from the corner and hid behind one of the statues. He wondered why he hid, it was just Sakura.

Jamie watched from behind the statue as Sakura, slowly came back from behind the shrine, and continued on her way. Wondering where she was going next he followed after her. He walked in silence, glancing at the surrounding, he knew where they were going. The only thing that way was a small abandon park. He knew this was over here because every once in awhile he and his friends would come to hangout here. He wondered what was here that made her come this way.

It wasn't long before his thoughts were answered. He watched as Sakura stood in the center of the small park and whistled. He watched as two akita's came running towards her. He never realized there were dogs here. It was that or they just moved here. The second option made the most sense since he hadn't been here in awhile. Everyone was too busy these days to hangout.

Jamie watched as she fed the dogs before leaving. He sighed, realizing that she still had places going. This made him wonder if this was a daily routine. He never thought that she did these kinds of things when school ended. He was sure she just went home and did homework, that's what all quiet girls do, right? He followed after her, surprised when she got on the bus. He sighed wondering how he was going to get on without her noticing. He had been following her for awhile and she still hadn't noticed, maybe she wouldn't notice even if he got after her.

When they got off, he was surprised when they got off in front of the hospital. He followed after he as she walked into the hospital. He silently thought to himself, wondering why she was here. He didn't know of anyone of hers that was in the hospital. Tenji would have told them, or at least that's what he thought. When she checked in with the nurses, he said the exact same thing. He got suspicious looks, but was let through, noticing as he had come with Sakura.

As they walked through the halls he learned a couple things about Sakura. Just as Tenji had said she was a nice girl. Everyone in the hospital seemed familiar with her. She gave out several smiles to everyone he came by, and even talked with many of the patients. No one questioned why he was following her, only thinking that he was there to see someone of his own, they just happened to be going the same way.

Sakura soon came to stop and walked into a room. Jamie stopped and looked at the nameplate. Meiling Li. He raised a brow wondering what she was doing here. He quietly cracked the door open and watched as Sakura took a seat next to the bed. In the bed was a girl with long black hair and piercing ruby eyes. He assumed that this was Meiling Li.

"Hey," Meiling Li said, a smile on her face. "How long has it been? You need to come more often."

"Sorry, I've been caught up with things lately. I just haven't found time. Sorry for leaving you alone." Sakura replied. Jamie watched as Sakura raised the bag. "Brought some pudding want some?" He watched as Meiling threw her arms over

"Oh, this is why I love you." Meiling squealed, before pulling away from Sakura. Sakura handed her a cup of pudding and Meiling happily ate it. "By the way, who's that?" Sakura quickly turned around and looked at Jamie. Jamie's eyes widen, wondering when Meiling noticed him. He sighed and stepped in before walking over to Sakura.

"That's Jamie Han, my twin brother's friend." Sakura responded as if she had known that he was following her. There was a long silence before something dawned on Jamie. Sakura knew who he was and it wasn't zero like Tenji thought. She had one. She had a friend.


	5. Chapter 5: New Mission

And another chapter. I feel like Sakura thoughts are redundant, does anyone else think so too? Hopefully it doesn't stay that way, and I think I'm doing a good job at updating. Let's hope it stays that way.

Now for disclaimers: I do not own CCS, only the story the characters play a role in.

Enjoy!

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Sakura stared at Jamie. He couldn't make himself less obvious. She stood and looked at Meiling. "I'll be back I'm gonna go get something to drink. Want anything?" She questioned Meiling. Meiling nodded her head and Sakura smiled. "How about you? You want something?" She asked Jamie.

"No, uh, I'm good." Jamie replied.

"Well, then take a seat. You're already here." Sakura said, before leaving. Jamie could feel the coldness in her voice. It seemed like she was angry. It must have been because he was following, and now he felt stupid. She had known he was following her.

Outside Sakura sighed and shook her head. At some point she had figured out Jamie was following her. It was after she fed the cats did she realize he was following. Why? She didn't know. She was hoping she could keep her little detour a secret from everyone, but she guessed wrong. She wondered when Jamie even began following her, she was sure it was long before she reached the cats.

When she found the vending machine, she quickly got what she needed and walked back to Meiling's room. As she approached the room, she could hear laughter coming from the room. She felt as her body tensed at the sound of their laughter. A quick thought ran through her head before she quickly shook it off and walked into the room, with a smile. "Catch." Sakura tossed the bottle of tea to Meiling who happily caught it before cracking it open.

"Ah~" Meiling squealed, "I really do love you Sakura."

Sakura smiled and took a seat on the other side of Meiling next to the window, since Jamie had taken her spot. Sakura's smile disappeared as she faced Jamie. She raised her brow and questioned him, "Why were you following me?"

Jamie looked hesitant before he answered her. "I just happened to see you."

"When did you start following me?"

"When you were in the convenience store." He noticed as their eyes widen. "No, you see, it's not what you think. . ." He tried to explain, though the words weren't coming to him. He had never felt like this before and he didn't like it. He watched as Meiling looked at Sakura.

"Stalker?"

"No!" He shouted. "Again, it's not what you think. I really just happened to see her."

"But you didn't have to follow her." Meiling shouted back.

"I was just curious, okay?"

"About what?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know. Everyone's obsessed with, and I was wondering why." He answered.

"What? Who? I've never heard of this?" Sakura said, her mouth gaping open.

"Everyone. Boys like you. Honestly, you're pretty cute. Girls envy because boys like you. Syaoran, has taken interest in you and so has Tomoyo. And I can see it in Eriol's eyes as well. I was just wondering what was sooo good about you." He explained. He could tell his face and ears were red. It was suddenly too hot in the room for him. It made him want to leave. He looked up when he heard Meiling laugh. "W-what? What's so funny?" He watched as Meiling ignored him and turned to Sakura.

"H-he get's honest when he's under pressure." Meiling laughed and Sakura sighed.

"You and your group of friends are the strange ones." Sakura said. "Just leave me alone like I've always been. Your life will be much easier that way."

Jamie and Meiling looked at one another, confused. She was suddenly cold again, and Jamie was sure that that was something Meiling had never seen. Jamie sighed and shook his head. "There you go again. You're so contradicting." Jamie said, running his hands through his head. He had never been frustrated before with another person. Angry yes, but frustrated no.

"I wouldn't be so, if you just leave me be and believe that that was me then it wouldn't be so confusing." Sakura stood and walked to the door. "Now if you excuse me, I'll get going now." Then she was gone.

Jamie sighed and looked at the door, before he decided that he should get going as well. Just as he began walking he was stopped by Meiling. She held his wrist in his hand and stared at him. "Well, you have to take responsibility and keep me company until she comes back." Jamie sighed and sat down staring at the girl who sat in the bed.

"So, what's your relationship with Sakura?" Meiling asked, as she continued to eat the pudding that was left by Sakura.

"We don't have one. Well I'm her brother's friend." Jamie said.

"Oh."

"And you?"

"We met by accident." Meiling said. "She was visiting her mother, but walked into the wrong room, though she decided to stay and we kind of just hit it off. Since then she's visited me a ton times, and everytime she's treated me kindly."

Jamie didn't know what he was supposed to say next. He had always thought that Sakura just didn't care about anything, so he never bothered to stop and think about her. Sure he was told by Tenji that Sakura was nice, but that could've have been him just saying things. She was his sister after all.

"Is it true?" Meiling suddenly asked.

"What?"

"What you said about Sakura that everyone's obsessed with her."

"Kind of, but a lot of people don't like her." Jamie said. "You know how she acted with me just now. She acts like that towards everyone. . . except her family, and you I guess."

"I don't see why people would dislike Sakura. She a nice person. She's kind and caring, and can talk a lot. She's also very adorable."

"Well, I learn all of that today. I watched her feed cats at the run shrine, and dogs at an abandoned park. A person who not nice wouldn't do that."

"Do you like her now?"

"If your asking if my opinion of her has changed, then yes." Jamie sighed looked out the window, only seeing the sky. "Are you sure she's coming back?"

"Yeah, she'd feel bad about it and come back. She's probably visiting her mother." Just as Meiling finished her sentence the door slid open again. Standing at the door was Sakura. Jamie smiled at Sakura, who glared at him. He knew what she was thinking, she was so easy to read. "See, she's come back."

"Then I'll get going." Jamie said, standing.

"Are you gonna come again?" Meiling asked.

"If you want me to."

"Yeah, it was nice talking to you about the things I didn't know about Sakura." Meiling smiled, and Jamie looked at Sakura, who was standing next to him now.

"What'd you tell her?" She asked, angrily, shooting a glare at Jamie. Jamie looked at Sakura then to Meiling, with an expression that asked for helped. Meiling laughed and shook her head. "Meiling what'd he tell you?" Meiling brought her index finger to her lips and winked at them.

"Secret." Sakura growled and threw her hands in the air. Jamies eyes widen in shock. Seeing Sakura frustrated like this was funny. He never thought he was going to see a different side of Sakura. It was kind of funny."

The next day Jamie found himself staring at the back of Tenji's head. He wasn't sure how he was going to tell him that Sakura actually had a friend. When the bell rang, ending the class, Jamie stretched and leaned back in his chair. Since he sat behind Syaoran he didn't have to move to gather with his friends. He watched as all of his friends gather next them and they all began talking. As they talked, the room became quiet and, whispers began spread across the room. He looked at Tenji and Syaoran who were also confused before they realized who had walked into the room.

Jamie smiled when Tomoyo perked up and greeted Sakura as she walked into the room. It was a first for everyone in this room to see the rumored Sakura walk into this room for she had no business in this room. Everyone watched as she approached the happy-go-lucky group. She stopped in front of Tenji and then scanned the group, her eyes made contact with Jamie's. Jamie's smile changed from genuine to awkward as Sakura moved closer to him.

"Not a word, you hear me." She said pointing her index finger at him.

"Do it like that and everyone will ask." Jamie joked. His genuine smile came back when Sakura's face changed to horror. She looked around, noticing as everyone was staring at them. She turned back to Jamie and glared.

"Not a word." She repeated as she left the room. It was after she left did Jamie that realize that he had teased the younger Kinomoto. He sighed and smiled before leaning back against his chair again. He couldn't believe he teased Sakura.

"What was that about?" Tenji, Syaoran, and Tomoyo asked, looking at him with disbelief. He looked at them and smiled, glancing around. Everyone also had the same look as them. How was he supposed to explain what just happen to them. She told him not to say anything, and he wasn't going to. As much as she was not mean she was scary as well. He never thought she could be scary.

"It was nothing." He lied, though he knew that they knew it was a lie. "Seriously, it's nothing."

He watched as they let off. Tomoyo had pouted and Syaoran look disturbed, however it was Tenji's stare that scared him the most. It looked as though Tenji was plotting to kill him, something he wished he wasn't doing. He smiled at them awkwardly before trying to change the subject.

When Sakura made it back to her class she sunk in her seat. First it was Syaoran, then it was Tomoyo, and now it was Jamie. She like her peaceful life of being alone, and now everything was ruined. Sure she was alone and people didn't like her, but no one ever bothered her or bullied her. She liked being left alone. With a sigh she turned to look out the window. If it was one, then two, and now three, then there was definitely going to be a four, five, and six, maybe even a seven, eight, nine. That was one too many people in her life. She already had her family and Meiling, she didn't need more.

She needed to distance herself from everyone again. If she did that then she didn't have to worry about the problems to come afterwards. If she didn't have any friends then nothing would happen, no one would get hurt. She wouldn't get hurt. She had one friend. One friend wasn't enough to trigger anything, more than one and bad things were going to happen. She made a promise to not make any friends.

When lunch arrived, Sakura was quick to move to her new lunch spot. She like her old spot, but Tomoyo would be there. She didn't want to see Tomoyo, nor did she want to see anyone else. Seeing people meant, having fun, and having fun meant friends. She quietly ate her food, somewhat missing the noisy talks that came from Tomoyo. She shook her head. She knew she shouldn't have been too close to anyone. She sighed and looked off the roof, to the spot where she would have been eating lunch if not for Tomoyo. It was strange seeing it from that position, and it felt lonely. She sighed and continued eating.

Tomoyo scowled as she returned back to her classroom where her friends were. They all glanced at her surprised that she was there. They were all sure she was going to eat with Sakura. That was the only time Tomoyo had to become friends with her.

"What happened?" Eriol asked, as Tomoyo took a seat next to him.

"She wasn't there."

"Her lunch spot is empty." Syaoran said glancing out the window.

"No, I meant her classroom. I couldn't catch her before she left." She complained.

"Maybe she found a new spot." Jamie said.

"It's not a maybe, she definitely found a new spot." Syaoran said.

"Why is she like that?" Tomoyo asked with a pout. "What's wrong with making friends?" Tomoyo turned to look at Tenji for some answers. He only shook his head. He didn't have any to give her.

"We could always try and find out." Jamie suggested, sparking an idea into everyone's head.


	6. Chapter 6: Something Else

Sorry it's been awhile. There were some problems, but everything fine now. Now then because it's been awhile, I put up two chapters.

Enjoy!

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It was a Sunday morning and Sakura had absolutely nothing planned. She knew that Jamie was visiting Meiling and so she didn't want to be there and Tenji was out with the rest of his friends. Her older brother Touya was also with her friends and her father was visiting his mother. This left her alone in the house. She had all day to herself, like every weekend.

The last three days, Tomoyo, Jamie, and Syaoran hadn't tried talking to her, it was actually the opposite. It was clear to her that they were avoiding her. It gave her relief, but at the same time it made her feel lonely. She was supposed to be used to it, but it didn't help that it had been awhile since she had people to talk to, to hang out with.

Sakura left her and made her way to the kitchen, maybe she'd just spend her day watching anime and eating food. The thought made her happy, but the thought also made her feel fat. She didn't know what she was going to do. She could just walk around town, that would make time pass. She wished she didn't wake up today cause then school, would arrive and that would eat up all of her time.

As Sakura made her way through the living room to the kitchen she felt as her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She raised a brow and pulled it out looking at whoever it was that just texted her. It was Syaoran. He had texted her that the twins wanted to see her and was giving him troubles. She sighed and smiled thinking about the twins. She hadn't seen them in a while. She was too busy with Meiling or the Principal to help Syaoran out. She felt bad that she left him to take care of them by himself even though she promised to help him. She quickly replied to himself, suddenly not feeling lonely anymore. As she left the house she didn't notice the small smile on her face or the group of people walking towards her.

When Sakura arrived at Syaoran's place, she rung the doorbell, and listened as Syaoran came to get the door. Just like always he had them both with him. One in his arms, and the other on his shoulders. He greeted her with a smile, and let her in. She led them to the living room and the four of them sat quietly. Sakura watched as both Kero and Suppie crawled over to her, clinging onto her clothes. She smiled lifting the into her lap.

"Hey, guys. Long time no see." she said bouncing her legs, receiving giggles from the twins. "Have you guys been good to Li-kun."

"Saora, good." They said with a smile. "Sakra, good?" She smiled at Kero's question.

"Yes, I'm good Kero." She hugged Kero and Suppie tightly . "Ah~ you guys are so refreshing."

"You know you can come see them whenever. You did promise me you'd help look after them until my parents find to come and pick them up." Syaoran said, taking Suppie into his arm. He sat down next to Sakura and wiggled, Suppie's arms. "I'm sure they'd be happy to see you more often. Sometimes I feel like they get tired of seeing me everyday."

"Maybe, I'll think about." Sakura said. "Your not hanging out with my brother and your friends?" Sakura asked, as she distractedly play with Kero's hair.

"No, I have to watch these guys."

"You can take them with you. I mean there are other girls in your group. I'm sure they'll help you look after them."

"Yeah, but I won't know what to do if they get hurt." Syaoran glanced at Sakura, mesmerized by the smile she had as she coddled Kero. He wondered if that was what Sakura was going to be like if she was a mother. She'd be a really good mother, since she knew how to take care kids, and he was sure she knew how to take care of people. "So," Syaoran started not knowing how to bring up the conversation. He didn't want her to hate him right away. It seemed like a touchy subject for her.

"Hmm?"

"Is it alright if we become friends?" Syaoran noticed as she stopped playing with Kero's hair. "I mean, you and I have been you know getting to know each other, and you help me with these guys sooo, I thought that many. . ."

"Li-kun," She sounded kind of sad and a little lonely, something thing that was strange to Syaoran. Even if people thought Sakura was cold and mean, she never sounded sad or lonely. There was always some kind of energy when she spoke to someone. "Can we not. I want to enjoy my time here."

"Why can't we―"

"Li-kun, just, just not right now." Sakura said, "I don't want to leave just yet. Don't make me leave."

Syaoran stared at Sakura, not wanting to make her feel bad. He could tell that she was serious. Anymore of this talk of friends, then she'd up and leave. This only made him more curious on why she was so against making friends. Why wouldn't she, making friends wouldn't kill her.

"Sakura, if you have a problem, you could always talk to me about it, and if not then Tomoyo or even your brother." Syaoran said.

"There's nothing." She brought Kero closer to her, like he was a stuff animal. She looked at Syaoran and smiled. It was a small sad smile, one that Syaoran didn't like. "There really isn't."

It was times like these when he didn't know who Sakura was. He didn't believe she was the mean and cold person that people thought she was, but he wasn't sure if she was the nice and kind person Tenji said. All he could see was that she was sad and lonely. She didn't look like anything else, even if she was smiling, the smile still felt lonely.

"Well, if there is, you can always tell me." Syaoran said.

It wasn't long until the mood had changed. Sakura had suggested she cooked lunch for them because it was nearing that time of day. Syaoran agreed to let her cook, under the condition of him helping. She argued back with the point of the twins, and ultimately won. Syaoran sat in the living room with the twins watching as anime that had caught the interest of that twins. They watched with wide eyes as characters flew across the screen, and bright colors were shown.

He glanced at the kitchen wondering if Sakura needed help. He couldn't sit there and wait for her. It was a weird feeling. He was used to eating by himself, but now the twins were here and so was Sakura. It wasn't lonely anymore. He smiled to himself deciding that he wasn't going to just sit there. He grabbed Kero and Suppie before making his way into the kitchen. He sat the twins in their high seat, before making his way towards Sakura.

He came up from behind her, and lean over to see what she was doing. She was chopping some carrots, and he could see that the potatoes were already in the pot. It was curry, an easy dish that everyone knew how to cook.

"Need help?" He said, watching as she jumped, and the knife slipped cutting her finger. His eyes widen as she turned on the faucet and placed her hand under the water.

"Go get me a gauze. You have some right?" She ordered. Syaoran nodded his head and ran off to find the first aid kit. When he found it he, rushed back to Sakura who looked down at her hand. Syaoran quickly set the first aid kit on the table and got the gauze out. He walked over to Sakura and took her hands drying it with a towel he grabbed from the drawers.

The two sat quietly as Syaoran treated the knife wound. He felt bad for getting her injured. He was basically the reason why she got hurt. He sighed, and glanced at Sakura, who only watched him quietly. "Sorry." He mumbled as he finished wrapping the small wound.

"It's fine." Sakura said. "Just don't do it again." She stood walking back to the pot of curry.

"You're still gonna cook?"

"Yeah, a little wound like this won't stop me from finishing."

"How about I do it?" Syaoran suggested.

"How about not?" Sakura said.

"Why?"

"Because you're just gonna do it wrong."

"No I can cook. I always cook for myself." Syaoran argued. He stood walking over to her.

"Sure." She didn't believe him, not one bit.

"How do you know?"

"Cause your a boy."

"That doesn't mean anything." Syaoran said.

"Oh? Why does it look like this kitchen isn't ever used?"

"Because I cook only for me and those two eat simple things. Also I'm a relatively clean guy." Syaoran motioned to himself. Seeing no reaction out of Sakura he groaned. "Seriously I can cook."

"Okay, you can cook, but," She paused and turned the gas off, and turned around. "It's done, so you don't need to."

Syaoran watched as she smiled, something he knew she didn't know she was doing. He watched as she moved around the kitchen, getting the plates and bowls from the cupboard.

"You know you can help." She said, placing a plate down. She stopped to looked at him. "Now you don't want to help?" He stood and took the plate away from her, walking over to the pot of rice. He put a spoon of rice on the plate and handed it to Sakura, who poured the curry over it. She set it on the table and turned to Syaoran.

"What've you been feeding them?"

"Food." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Alright, rice, fish. . . rice." She looked at him. "What? I don't know what they can eat. Fish and rice are soft, and not hard to eat. I'm the youngest in my family."

"I am too, but I still know how to take care of a child." Sakura said. After that they began eating, watching as the two kids had curry for the first time. They both instantly liked it and made a mess. Sakura laughed as they ate, food dripping down their mouths. It wasn't long until they were done eating, and the kids were sleepy. Sakura put them to bed, and looked at the time. It was only two o'clock.

Her attention was taken away from the clock when her phone buzzed. She pulled it out, and looked at the text, noticing that Syaoran was watching her. He had been all day. The text was from Meiling asking her if she was busy. Sakura looked at Syaoran, and the two kids, before replying. She was going to go now, she had already stayed here for too long.

"Alright, well, I've got something else to do. You'll be fine by yourself right?" She didn't wait for a reply before continuing. "Yes, you'll be fine. They're sleeping." She answered for him.

They walked to the front of the house, and Syaoran watched as she got ready. He didn't understand why they couldn't befriends. What happened during lunch, and her just being here were what friends did. He still wanted to know why she couldn't consider him her friend. They were already technically friends.

"Li-kun," Her voice pulled him out of his thoughts, "It's not your fault." Then she left leaving him there left to think about her last words before leaving.

Syaoran sighed and looked at his phone. There were two unread messages. One was from his cousin, while the other one was from Tenji. He opened the text from Tenji and silently read it. He didn't like how Sakura didn't accept him as a friend, but he also didn't like the fact that all of them were trying to pry into her life. He was sure that she would eventually tell them when she was ready. He sighed and replied to Tenji.

 _Yeah, it was something else._


	7. Chapter 7: Missing Pieces

Sakura stopped at the door, hearing laughter come from the other side. She was sure that when she arrived Jamie would be gone. She knocked on the door and took a deep breath in. She didn't know how she was going to act towards them. There was Meiling, who she was friends with, and then there was Jamie who she couldn't befriend. She had limited her friends to one and one only.

"Ah! I think that's Sakura." She heard Meiling say from behind the door. "Come in." Sakura pulled the door aside and walked into the room, noticing that Jamie sat on Meiling right, where the window was. Sakura waved to Meiling and sat down next to her.

"Sorry, I didn't get you anything. I kind of just decided to come when you asked me."

"Were you doing something?" Meiling asked.

"No." Sakura watched as Meiling narrowed her eyes in suspicion, before shrugging and turning to Jamie, who began to stand.

"Well, now that Sakura's here I'll get going." He waved good bye to Meiling and left them alone in the room.

Sakura sighed and sunk in her seat, earning a laugh from Meiling. Sakura raised her brows in questioned and Meiling shook her head. "Sakura, you are unbelievable."

"What?"

"He's not that bad." Meiling said. Meiling watched as Sakura brought her hands to her face and groaned.

"I know." Sakura said from behind her hands.

"Then what's stopping you?"

"Nothing." Sakura mumbled.

"Sakura, you know I don't believe you."

"You should."

"But I'm not going to."

"Your life would be so much easier if you just did."

"Come on. Tell me, what's stopping you?"

"Nothing." Sakura repeated.

"Sakura, it won't kill you if you told me."

"No, it wouldn't. But," Sakura stopped and shook her head, letting her hands fall to her side again. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter."

Meiling sighed. She knew that Sakura was stubborn even if she hadn't seen it until now. The way Sakura, was able to instantly become friends with her as if it was nothing told her that she, somewhere inside, was stubborn. She'd have to find another way to find out why she didn't want to become friends with Jamie.

While Jamie was here, Meiling had learn a few new things about Sakura. She had already heard from Jamie that Sakura was cold and mean at school, something that was the exact opposite of what she saw. She learned that Sakura was alone. Sure she had her brother, but friends were a different kind of family. She also learned that no matter who wanted to become friends with her, she'd treat them coldly, driving them away. That's where Meiling was confused. Why would someone as nice as Sakura not want friends. There had to be a really good reason as to why she wasn't accepting friendship. But it had to explain why she was friends with Sakura.

"Anyways, what were you talking about with Jamie?" Sakura questioned, fixing her sitting position.

"We were just talking about how I got like this."

"Were you okay?"

"Yeah, I was fine. I don't mind talking about how I got like this."

"No, not that." Meiling understood then what Sakura was talking about and nodded her head. Sure she was in the hospital, and both of her legs were recovering, but at the same time there was a chance that she would never walk again. Never being able to walk again limited her, and she couldn't do the one thing she loved. If she couldn't walk then she couldn't do martial arts. Even if she did manage to walk again, it didn't guarantee that she could go back to doing martial arts. She could be disabled for the rest of her life.

"I'll be fine. It's not like my life is going to end. I'll finds something else to do with my life." Meiling smiled, trying to reassure Sakura. The smile Sakura gave Meiling, was a strange one. One of which seemed force and felt like Sakura knew something she didn't. But even so Meiling didn't want to force whatever it was that Sakura hid out if her. She'd feel bad after all the kindness Sakura had shown her.

"And you? What about you, Sakura? What were you doing before you came here." Meiling asked trying to lift the mood.

"Oh, I was just taking care of some kids." Sakura said, quietly thinking back to it. She tried not to admit it, but it was hard not to. She had fun, the most fun in , talking to Meiling was fun, but it was different with Syaoran. She didn't know how to explain it, but it was different.

"Is that where you got your wound?" Meiling asked.

"Yeah, though it was nothing big."

The conversation was cut there as they didn't really have anything else to talk about. To Sakura it was strange how both Meiling and Syaoran had asked about her issues with making friends. She didn't have any issues with making friends. It was something else. It wasn't she couldn't make any friends, it was she can't, or at least shouldn't.

Sakura stood from her spot and leaf, saying goodbye to Meiling as she did so. She walked through the hospital quietly, her hands behind her back and her head casted to the ground. She was limited to so many things, and she wasn't going to allow herself to tell anyone. Things had changed, and she hoped that they continued to stay that way.

As Sakura walked with her head casted down at the floor, she watched as a pair of feet stepped in front of her. She quickly glanced up, and before she knew she had fallen to the ground. She listened as the person groaned. They had also fallen. She quickly recovered and stood, dusting herself off. She glanced over at the other person, wondering who it was that she had run into.

Sakura sighed. Why couldn't it have been someone she didn't know? It would have saved her the trouble of avoiding them. Sakura reached out her hand, offering to help the person up. The person glanced at her hand before taking it, an apologetic look on their face.

"Sorry." The person said before glancing at her. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's alright Mihara, I wasn't looking either." Sakura said, though she questioned as to why Chiharu Mihara was in the hospital. She was sure Chiharu didn't have any relatives in the hospital, or at least that was the last thing she remembered. Sakura noted the wide eyes Chiharu gave her before moving on. She didn't want to deal with anyone she knew at the moment.

"Ah!, Kinomoto, do you have a moment?" Chiharu suddenly ask, grabbing onto Sakura's wrist. Sakura turned around, and looked at Chiharu. She had to somehow avoid this situation.

"Ah, I kind of have to go somewhere right now." Sakura lied.

"It'll only be for a few seconds. I mean it. It won't take up too much of your time."

"I really have to go."

"Well, then at least let me give you something, I was actually on my way to find you. I was told to give something to you." Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly. She didn't like the way that had sounded. She watched carefully as Chiharu pulled her bag over her shoulder, digging through it. Chiharu's eyes lit when she found whatever it was she was supposed to give to Sakura and pulled it out handing it to Sakura.

Sakura's eyes widen at what Chiharu handed her. It was a book.

Sakura looked at Chiharu who looked at her with a questioning look. "Where'd you get this?" Sakura asked, holding her right arm at her side with her left hand.

"I saw a tall man with dark hair and glasses freak out over it. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he watched someone dropped this and was in hurry and so couldn't return it himself. I asked who it was and he said you. Rather he said he looked in the book and that it had your name on it. I just so happened to be passing by and knew you." Chiharu gave her a cheeky smile.

Sakura felt as her hand reached out and grabbed the book. She bit her lip and smiled at Chiharu. "Thanks, I was actually on my way to find it. You saved me a ton of time." Sakura hugged the book to her chest before continuing on her way.

Chiharu watched as Sakura walked away and sighed. Syaoran, Jamie, and Tomoyo were right. There was something odd about her behavior. Chiharu had always been told that she was good at detecting lies, just as good as a lie detector, maybe even better, and the feeling she gets from Sakura is a strange one. She wasn't telling a lie, but at the same time she wasn't telling the truth. A hidden truth is no lie, and that's what Sakura was. A hidden truth.

Chiharu felt a buzz come from her pocket and she pulled her phone out. It was the group. They were meeting up somewhere to talk about their recent interactions with the mystery called Sakura. Chiharu closed her phone and pocketed it before leaving the hospital. As she made her way out a sudden thought occurred to her. What was Sakura doing in the hospital? She was sure that Sakura's family were all well. She'd asked Tenji when they all met up later. He would confirm anything that would be related to their family.

When she arrived at the meeting spot, she found that her group of friends were huddle in a circle, all waiting for her to arrive. It was a wonder how she arrived last, she was sure the last person to arrive would be Syaoran, but there he was with the twins in his arms.

As she approached them, she waved catching their some of their attentions. She sat next to Syaoran, wanting to at least hold one of them. "So, anything?" She asked first noticing as some of them were still thinking about stuff.

"Maybe," Syaoran said, handing Suppie to Chiharu who gladly took Suppie out of his hands. "She was acting weird the entire time she came to my house earlier."

"Weird how?" Tenji asked. "Because she was totally fine this morning."

"I don't know," Syaoran ran a hand through his hair. "She looked as if she was enjoying herself. She's never like that when she comes over. Well, only when Kero and Suppie sit in her lap."

"She wanted to be there with you today?" Tomoyo asked.

"Yeah, or maybe just the twins." Syaoran replied.

"Anything else before I throw in what I found?" Chiharu asked, moving to sit next to her boyfriend who was quick to wrap his arms around her.

"Yeah, when she was over, she didn't act like we weren't friends." Syaoran said. "She teased me, if that helps visualize how she was acting. I mean you only tease friends, right?"

"Wait," Jamie butt in, waving his hand. "She was at your place today?"

"Yeah. Were you following the conversation?" Syaoran brows dropped and gave him a dead look. "Are you stupid or something?"

"Ah! Shut it. I was just confirming."

"Why? I just said it."

"It doesn't matter anymore."

"Jamie, what were you trying to say?" Tomoyo interrupted, catching their attention.

"Alright, since when was she at your place?" Jamie asked, looking at Syaoran again.

"She was over at, um, nine-ish? And left around noon. Why?"

"Well, she came to the hospital around noon. Said she wasn't doing anything before she came over."

"What was she doing at the hospital?" Both Tenji and Syaoran asked. Chiharu stared at both boys. She could tell their reasons for asking were different, but why they were interested was what made her interested.

"She was visiting a friend." Everyone fell into a silence, gapping at him. Chiharu sighed and then smiled. This small bit of information contradicted everything everyone had just said, which made everything all the more interesting.

"Oh, so that's why she was at the hospital." Chiharu mumbled to nobody in particular.

"But I thought she didn't have any friends." Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Tenji said simultaneously, temporarily forgetting what Chiharu had mumbled out.

"Well, it's not zero anymore." Jamie said.

"What? She is so complicated. Why is she like this?" Syaoran said grabbing at his hair.

"No!" They all look at Suppie who had screamed out. His sudden interruptions broke the tension, making everyone laugh. It was strange how all of them were there trying to figure out this one girl who wasn't complicated when they didn't know her. Even her twin brother didn't know that she had had a friend, something that Tomoyo and Syaoran could not achieve.

"Wait, so she has a friend. But why not us?" Tomoyo asked, a pout forming on her lips.

"I don't know." Syaoran said with a sigh, looking down at Suppie. "Do you know?" He questioned the year and a half child who stared at him blankly. "Of course you wouldn't. You don't even know what I'm saying." He smiled at Suppie, who squealed in delight, returning the smile that was given to him. Syaoran sigh and hugged Suppie, suddenly feeling a little better.

"So, who's this friend of hers?" Tomoyo asked.

"Her name's Meiling. Though I don't know her last name." There was a long silence, before Syaoran screamed 'what'. They all looked at him with wide eyes, wondering why he was screaming out. He looked at Jamie and moved over to him, handing Suppie over to Rika who sat silently listening to everyone. When he reached Jamie, he placed his hands on his shoulders and shook him.

"What!" Syaoran screamed again, shaking him harder.

"Stop!" Jamie shouted back, pushing Syaoran away. "Are ya trying to kill me?"

"That won't kill you. Just what?" Syaoran said, leaning against Tomoyo for support.

"Why are you soooo, sooo this?" Jamie said gesturing to all of him.

"Because Meiling, the one in the hospital near here, is my cousin." Syaoran said with a sigh. "I don't know how you didn't look at the nameplate before entering the room. This information is still very important. Now we know she can make friends. Why she can't friends with us is the real question."

"Here's the thing." Chiharu said, deciding that maybe her bit of information could help. "I met her at the hospital as well. She was leaving."

"Must of been long after I was gone cause I didn't see you." Jamie said.

"Here's the thing though, I wasn't planning on going to the hospital at all."

"Then how'd you get there?" Syaoran asked.

"I was pointed to her direction. Returning a book to her." Chiharu replied. "But when I was talking to her she seemed very restraining. Like she was keeping herself from something. What that is, is well who knows?"

"We'll never get anywhere closer to befriending her." Tomoyo said.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better she said something strange before leaving my place." Syaoran said, taking Kero from Chiharu. "I don't know if it's related to the friend thing or something else, but she told me it wasn't my fault."

"Wasn't your fault for what?" Jamie asked.

"That's it. I don't know." Syaoran said, as he played with Kero's blonde hair just as Sakura had done. He learned from Sakura that the twins liked it when they played with their hair. It was something subtle, but Sakura was able to pick it up. A strange trait that she had. She was able to notice the smallest details when it came to people around her, even those who were not understandable yet.

"Ah, then here's something else as well, to screw with all your minds." Chiharu started, "She doesn't lie, but she doesn't tell the truth either."

"That doesn't make any sense." Jamie said.

"But it's true. That book I was supposed to give, and I did, she wasn't looking for it, but she took it anyways."

"You guys should just trust Chiharu when it comes to lies." Chiharu's boyfriend, Takashi said with a cheeky grin. "You know she's the best at it. Sniffing out lies."

"True, but then what does this add to?" Jamie said.

"What?" Syaoran asked. Jamie punched him, and smiled.

"She wants us to believe that she's cold and mean." Jamie said, punching Syaoran again.

Rika glanced at Naoko who shook her head and sighed. "Guys, there's too many missing pieces. We'll never be able to figure her out if we don't find more pieces. And ones that makes sense. She's a human girl, not a mystery." They all stared at Naoko, and nodded. Naoko was right. With a little more searching they could probably piece this strange and contradicting girl together, but what kind of things should they be looking for.


	8. Chapter 8: What He Doesn't Know

Here's another one.

I wanted to let you guys know something but I don't remember what it was, so let's just get on with it.

* * *

Rika sighed as the group went their separate way. What was she supposed to do to contribute to their finding? What could she do? She didn't have any reasons like they did to approached the extremely hard to approach girl, who was a little scary. She didn't know what she and Sakura had in common that could lead to them talking. Syaoran had the twins, Jamie had Meiling, Tenji was her brother, and Tomoyo was just Tomoyo. She wasn't like Tomoyo at all. Sure she had one or two thoughts about being friends with _the_ Sakura Kinomoto, but at the same time Sakura was just hard to approach, let alone find.

Rika was sure that if Sakura wasn't like this she'd fit in well with this group. If one Kinomoto could fit then a second and third could too. She was sure that was what Tomoyo had thought as well, which was why she was trying so hard to become Sakura's friend, though it didn't seem to be working to well. Rika sighed once more an continued on her way.

As she walked in silence, someone caught her attention. It was the same person that they had been talking about not that long ago. She wondered if there was something else behind why everyone was so interested in her. Sakura wasn't interesting until this year, something had changed, but she didn't know what. Maybe it was the fact that the twins were here this year. That had been the reason why Syaoran began talking to Sakura, and why Tomoyo became interested in her.

Rika carefully observed Sakura wondering why she was staring at forest. There was nothing all that interesting with the forest, except for the fact that there were rumors about it. The rumor was that in the center of the forest was a shrine. An old shrine that was haunted. Though it was only a rumor since no one had ever found such shrine in the center of the forest.

Sakura gave a sigh, before trudging into the forest surprising Rika. Rika didn't know whether to follow or not. It was still day, but nearing evening, a time not to be out, especially in a forest that had rumors of old haunted shrines. Running after Sakura, Rika grabbed a hold of Sakura's hand, noticing as her hand was trembling. It was obvious to Rika that Sakura was scared. Why? She didn't know, but she could understand. This forest had rumors.

Rika stared into Sakura's dull green eyes, one that she imagined would be bright with fighting spirit, for she was fierce like a fire, though cold like ice. They stared at each other for a while longer before Rika let go of Sakura. By then Sakura had stopped trembling. Rika let her hand find its place next to her side, and she stared at the ground. What was she going to do now? She was sure Sakura was going to question her, and she knew she didn't know how to answer whatever question it was that Sakura would throw at her.

Unexpectedly, Sakura didn't question her, rather than questioning her, Sakura just continued to stare. Rika fidgeted in her spot and looked at the ground not knowing what she was supposed to do. She thought she was going to be questioned, but nothing came. Rika quickly lifted her head to say something, but was stopped by the look Sakura gave her. It was an unexpected look, and one Rika knew quite well. It was a relieved look. Why Sakura was relieved was beyond her imagination.

"Kinomoto-san, are you alright?" Rika asked, wondering why she had yet to say something. Still there was no answer. "Kinomoto-san, Kinomoto-san." She repeated still getting nothing.

"Sakura." Rika finally said. Maybe if she had used her name she'd answer her or at least she'd get a reaction out of her.

Rika sighed when she still didn't get anything out of Sakura. She didn't seem to be alright, but everything looked to be alright. Rika glanced around not know what exactly she was supposed to do. Noticing the convenience store, Rika decided that standing in the convenience store was safer, now that it was beginning to darken. She grasped Sakura's hand again, and dragged Sakura over to the convenience store. It was strange as she thought dragging Sakura would be harder, but it wasn't, she was walking on her own.

Once inside the convenience store, Rika let go of Sakura and faced her. She noticed immediately that Sakura's eyes weren't dull and lifeless anymore, they were as she thought they should be. Bright green, burning with passion. What kind of passion? She didn't know.

"Are you alright Sakura?" She asked again, hoping to get a response this time.

"Huh?" Sakura's stare became blank. "Oh! Uh right, yeah, I'm fine." Her answer didn't convince Rika. It had seemed to her that Sakura was just agreeing to agree, or to avoid something, maybe confrontation.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." There was a long silence before Rika decided that she was going to try and get information out of Sakura. She knew she wasn't going to get anything but she could still try.

"Can I ask you something?" Rika asked, twiddling her fingers. There was no answer. She could sense Sakura putting her guard up. Readying herself for whatever Rika had to throw at her."What were you doing?"

"What do you mean?" Rika was suddenly interest in her answer. It didn't seem like she remembered standing in front of the forest.

"You were standing in front of the forest."

"What was I doing there?"

"I don't know. You were just staring at it." Rika watched as Sakura clicked her tongue. Rika knew that her response was odd. She didn't even try to make it look like she knew what was going on. She said she was fine, which was obviously a lie, but at the same time it wasn't. None of her answers or what she said connected. She was fine, but asked what she was doing, and was confused. It's was just as Naoko had said, there were too many missing pieces. At least not enough to make sense of anything this girl said or did.

"Well, it doesn't concern you Rik― Sasaki-san." Sakura correct, and Rika was quick to note the mess up. "Thanks though."

Rika watched as Sakura walk out of the convenience store. Still curious and not fully convinced that it didn't concern her. Rika followed Sakura out. She watched from the convenience store as Sakura walked back in the direction they came from. Sakura wasn't going home, or at least not at the moment. She watched carefully as Sakura glanced around and stopped in front of the forest. She looked to be debating about something before she made her decision.

Sakura walked into the forest, quickly disappearing into the it's thick foliage. She didn't seem to have any of the effects that Rika found her in. She had her complete mind. Rika didn't know if she should follow after Sakura or not, but it was already too late. She wasn't going to follow after Sakura. Sakura was probably already gone, and following her now would only get her lost.

Rika sighed and shook her head. She could help her friends now. She had information that was just as strange as what everyone else had said. Did it connect to anything they said, no, but it was still something. She would tell them tomorrow at school since it seemed important.

The next day as Rika arrived, she noticed that she had arrived first at their usual meeting spot before school. There were only a few kids entering at a time, so it was too early for her to be seeing any of her friends. Rika leaned her back against the tree and wait it was going to be awhile, so pulled her book out and began reading.

As she read, she looked up noticing a familiar figure. It wasn't hard to spot her out. Sure she was alone, but that wasn't what made it easy to spot her out. It was the fact that she was acting suspicious and nothing more. Sakura's head moved from left to right before she scampered off behind the school. Interested Rika, put her book away and followed after her. This was the school, not the forest, she'd be able to spot Sakura running around somewhere.

Behind the school, Rika watched as Sakura approached her lunch spot, sitting down. She turned her head and Rika watched as she began talking to herself. In that small amount of time Sakura had unknowingly showed her so many different faces. Sakura had began off frustrated and angry, but that had soon dissipated as she continued to talk to herself. A gentle smile replaced her angry and frustrated looks, as she seemed to switch topics.

All of her actions made no sense. She couldn't hear Sakura's conversation, but from her actions she could tell it was a meaningful one. With who? She didn't know, but it was a meaningful conversation. Rika sighed and shook her head. Why she easily accepted the fact that Sakura talked to nobody confused her, but it felt like somewhere deep inside she knew the answer. She just couldn't find it.

She watched as Sakura, stood and faced the tree that the girl often sat under, placing a hand on its trunk. A smile that Rika had never seen before appeared on Sakura's face before she shook her head. It seemed like Sakura had finished her conversation. Rika squeaked as she realized that Sakura was headed her way. Deciding that now was a good time to go, Rika scurried off back to the gate, where she saw Syaoran and Tomoyo talking.

When she reached them she greeted them with a smile. Her head turned, noticing as Sakura had made her appearance again, but this time she moved towards the building. Rika watched as Sakura disappeared into the school building.

"Hey, Rika. Whatchya lookin at?" Syaoran asked, looking in the direction she faced.

"I saw Sakura." Rika replied.

"You too?" Rika didn't understand this. Did he mean he saw her too or was it something else. "Did you have an unexpected interaction with _the_ Sakura Kinomoto." Rika smiled and nodded. "What was it like?"

"Odd, but interesting. I'll tell you more during lunch." Syaoran and Tomoyo nodded, and it wasn't long before their other friends began to appear, collecting around the tree by the entrance gate.

When lunch came around, they all were quick to gather, all eager to listen to the talk about their current interest. Sakura. They sat around in a circle around Syaoran's desk, some on desks others on chairs. They could hear as other's whispered about them. A normal thing that happened often around their group. Syaoran, turned his head and gazed out the window, noticing as Sakura had returned to her lunch spot. It was good now that she was back.

Syaoran noticed Rika, and turned to face her. "So? What happened?"

"What?" Tomoyo and Tenji said.

"She had an unexpected interaction with Sakura." Syaoran simply replied, quickly dismissing them.

"Well, I met her after we split up yesterday."

"Right after?"

"Yep."

"What was she doing?"

"That's the odd thing, or rather interesting." Rika replied. "She was staring at the forest, almost in a trance like state. Strange, yes?"

"Forest? Which forest?" Tenji asked.

"The one with the rumors about the shrine."

"That can't be right." Tenji said. "She wouldn't go there. Along with the rumors with the shrine, there are also rumors of ghosts being seen there."

"And she's afraid of ghosts?" Syaoran asked. Tenji nodded his head.

"Well, I guess that's why she was trembling. When I stopped her from going in."

"She was going in?" Tenji asked with disbelief. Everyone could tell that all of this was a surprise to Tenji. They all assumed that Tenji knew everything about Sakura, for they were twins, but with this, it made it hard for them to put things together. Their main source of information might not know anything about the one person they all wanted to learn about. If anything Sakura knew more about Tenji then Tenji did Sakura. As they thought things would go more smoothly, but now that Tenji knew as much as they did it made things much more complicated.

"Well, was there anything else?" Tenji asked. Out of everyone there, he seemed to be the most interested and invested.

"Yeah, sure. I pulled her to the nearby convenience store and she snapped out of it. Whatever _it_ was. Not only that she didn't know what was going."

"She didn't know what she was doing in front of the forest."

"Nope, but guess what. She trudge straight in after we finished talking. She had an internal debate, but she still went in." They all listened as Tenji groaned in frustration, pulling at his hair.

"Everytime we learn something new about her, it feels like we get further and further." Syaoran groaned.

"There's more though." Rika said.

"What! There's more?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"This morning, I followed her behind the school. She was talking to someone."

"Someone? Another friend?" Tenji asked. Rika shrugged. "Then what?"

"There wasn't anyone there. She was alone."

Rika could tell that they were just getting more and more invested in Sakura. Sakura, was a mystery. She leaves clues and things behind, though it was never enough to figure everything out. Rika sighed, not knowing how she was going to help her friends. Everything she told them only jumbled up their thoughts. Anymore and she was sure they were all gonna quit trying to befriend Sakura. This entire thing was complicated, just the way Sakura wanted it. Rika could tell, maybe they all could tell that Sakura could be befriended, which was why they were trying so hard.

Rika glanced at Tenji who seemed the most affected out of all of them, and she could understand why. The sister he thought he knew so well, wasn't who he thought she was. There were so many things he reacted to as they all talked about her, and every single thing they talked about seemed to just surprise him even more. She wondered what Tenji would do after they finished talking. The only two things she could see him doing was leaving it be, or confronting her about it.

"What do you mean she was alone?" Tenji asked.

"That's it. She was just alone. No one was there." Rika quickly replied. She noticed as Tenji shifted in his spot. She knew he didn't like that he didn't know his sister. What he doesn't know about his sister, he hated, she could tell that much.

* * *

So, I might post another chapter later today because I haven't been keeping up, but well see.

Thanks to those who are still reading the story.

If it feels like the story is taking forever then I understand because I just want them to be all fluffy with each other, but things have to come first.


	9. Chapter 9: Confrontation

Alright. Here's another one.

* * *

That afternoon, when school let out, Sakura sighed, pushing out of her desk. She looked out the window noticing as Tenji's group of friends were heading out for the day. As she stared at the group as they left she noticed that someone was missing, and that someone was her older twin brother. She stretched her arms up and back before turning to leave. She stopped midway when her emerald eyes landed on his avocado eyes. She cocked a brow in wonder. Had she made plans to walk home with him that afternoon? She shook her head. She didn't make any plans to walk home with him that afternoon.

She carefully and slowly walked over to him, calculating all of her steps. She didn't know why he was there, but he was there with a purpose, and she felt like she knew what his purpose was. When she reached him she stopped only inches away from him, staring at their feet, as if she had done something wrong. What was she supposed to say? It had been awhile since they had last talked. He was too busy with his friends, and she was too busy with… his friends.

"Hey," She started, lifting her head to look at his avocado eyes. He smiled at her and moved to her side, throwing an arm over her shoulder.

"Hey, sis." It was rare for them to act this close at school, and everytime they did it always felt awkward, well at least for her it was always awkward. "You going home?"

"Yeah. Li-kun said he could handle the twins for today." Sakura responded as she felt their feet dragging them home.

"Nowhere else to be?" Sakura looked at him and shook her head, not noticing the strange look he gave her.

"So, how have your days been?" He asked, peering down at her from her side.

He noticed as she sighed. "Too busy. Too crowded."

"Oh, come on. It's just a couple of people."

"One too many."

"It'd be easier on you if you just accepted it." He felt as she tensed under his arm for a second. He wondered what that was about, but didn't question it. He'd question it when he thought it was right.

"Nah, it's just. . . I'm awkward, and I don't know if any of them will like me." Sakura said. Tenji knew that was a lie, and she knew he knew it was a lie. If they didn't like her they'd just leave her alone. They wouldn't attempt to talk to her. "I'm not sociable like you are Ten-kun."

"Stop, not at school." She had stuck her tongue out at him, making him smile. At least that part of her hadn't changed. "And you know that's not true." He said poking at her forehead.

"It is."

"Don't lie. Sakura you've always been bad at lying, but you've always been good at hiding the truth. A hidden truth is no lie." He pointed out, quoting Chiharu. The two had walked aways away from her class and was now heading down the stairs.

"Yes, yes. I know. I'm no good at lying. That's what everyone keeps telling me. You, dad, Touya, even mom."

"You are bad at it." He realized that she was distracting him. She was good at that. Finding something unimportant and making it a topic of conversation just to distract, to make people forget. To forget what he didn't know. "And you shouldn't keep trying if your bad at it. Also, you can't tell me you're awkward. You had friends before. When we were younger."

"Ah, they. . . weren't really my friends." Tenji looked at her confused, and he knew she instantly recognized that he was confused. This made him wonder when she got so good at reading him, and when he stopped knowing things about her. "I was their gopher."

"For them? I thought that only happened with guys?"

"Nope, girls know how to hide it better. Boys intentional show that. It shows they have power over others. Girls on the other hand want to be cute, so they can't openly do that. It lowers their cuteness."

"Cuteness?" Tenji said lifting a brow. At the age of ten kids were adorable, not cute. Cute was the word you'd use to describe the girl you like. Realizing he was getting off topic, he shook his head and continued. "So, you're saying you were bullied when we were younger."

"Essentially."

"And you never told me?" She didn't answer, and he didn't like that. "Sakura?"

"I couldn't. You. . . I couldn't reach you then." The statement didn't make any sense to Tenji. He was sure they were the same height when they were younger. Heck, if she had cut her hair, she'd look just like him. He stopped and looked at Sakura, silently asking her to tell him what she meant. Though he knew that she wasn't going to answer him. That's how it had been lately. Lots of unaswered questions between the two of them.

He then realized that he was distracted again, yet again. Like he said, she was good at that. Even though he learned new things about her, he didn't like how she was able to detect what he wanted to talk about, being able to avoid the subject. "Why?"

The question came suddenly so Sakura didn't know what to say. She could already tell what he was getting at, but she wasn't going to drag him in. If she did, thing might turn for the bad, and she didn't want that. She was finally going to have a peaceful life, just like she wanted. Sure it was going to be lonely, but everyone will be there. She could watch them from a far as they all gained their happiness. As long as they were happy she was happy.

Sakura walked over to him and grabbed his hands in hers. She looked up at him. His avocado eyes telling her that he felt betrayed and lost. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to mess anything up. So she wasn't going to tell him, but she wasn't going to lie either. Like he said; she was good at hiding the truth, or maybe avoiding it.

"Ten-kun," She said quietly, "It's not your fault. It's not their fault."

Tenji felt as his anger was sparked, growing a small flame. She didn't help him, and he wanted to help her. He thought they were close, but it was when all this started happening did he realize how far they were from each other. He knew absolutely nothing about her. He only knew she was his twin, and that she was a nice person. This sudden distance was larger than he had thought. It was not crack, but a large crevice that separated them. All he could remembered were the times when they were young. When he was the one who was bullied. When she had saved him on multiple accounts. When had they grown so apart?

"Ten-kun?"

"Chi-chan." Sakura stepped back. That was the nickname he had given her. Only those two knew why she was called Chi-chan, and he only ever said it when he wanted something from her. She knew what he wanted, but she couldn't give it to him. Bad things were going to happen. "What do you mean it's not their fault. Not my fault? Sakura, nothing adds up. Nothing makes sense." He watched as she took a step back from him. They were still at school. Still in the entrance of the school, but the sun was setting, making the halls burn a red orange color.

"Just trust me, everything's better this way." She suddenly shouted, her head casted to the floor. He watched with hurt eyes as she began to back away from him. His eyes grew with hurt, and his mind became clouded. He was confused. Even if she was looking at him, he could tell that wasn't meant for him or at least half of it wasn't. What was it that she hid from them? What was it that hurt her so bad? He opened his mouth to say something to her, but stopped as she beat him to it. "Just trust me." She pleaded, her voice cracking. It was a voice she had never used on him. A voice that made him suddenly hate himself for making her use it.

"It's so hard." He started, casting his gaze to the floor. "It's so hard to when I realize that I don't anything about you anymore. That my friends know more than me, when I'm your brother. And it makes me question to myself, when was it that I stopped knowing things about you? About my little sister, who has always been right next to since the day I was born."

"They don't know anything about me Ten-kun." She quickly replied, trying to comfort him. Reassure him that he knew her the best.

"They do." He replied just as fast. "Syaoran, knows your good with kids. I didn't know that. . . J-Jamie knew you had a friend. . . what was her name, uh, . . . Mei- Mei-something. I didn't know that, I thought you didn't have any friends."

"Trust me Ten-kun. They don't know anything about me."

"Then what? What about Rika? Huh? What's in the forest that has rumors of ghost? Ghosts! Are you even afraid of them?"

"That's not it Ten-kun. Just trust me!" Sakura shouted. "It would be easier if you guys just didn't try to involve yourself with me."

"Sakura," Sakura felt as her heart stopped, he didn't call her that unless he was mad at her, and that was rare. "I can't just not involve myself with you. I'm your brother. We live together."

"But, still they didn't have to come into my life and ruin everything."

"They didn't ruin anything. They just wanted to be your friends, get to know you." He shouted, noticing as she flinched, though he was too blinded by anger to stop and think about what he was saying and how it was affecting her. His flame of anger had already began spreading, and there was no turning back. "Why can't you just be their friends?" He questioned again.

"I can't!" She responded.

"Lies!" He screamed, again she flinched. "You're friends with this Mei-something person!"

"I'm serious! I can't."

"Or you won't." His voice was low and serious.

"Tenji, I can't. It's not possible." Sakura cried. "I tried. But he won't allow me to. I'm scared!"

Scared. That's what put the fire out. That and the fact that she had just run out on him. He watched as she ran, ran as fast as she could away from him. He wanted to go after her, tell her he was sorry, but his body didn't move. It stood there watching, her as she disappeared. It was until ten minutes past before he finally decided to head home.

As he walked, he realized he was alone. He remembered telling his friends that he would take it slow. He was going to lead her around town, get her some ice cream, and maybe some cake at a cafe, or anything she wanted. Then as they talked about anything, he'd drag it on, and the get her to slip, but he somehow knew that wasn't going to work. She was careful about everything she said and how she said it. Everything she said she had already planned to say. She probably made answers for every kind of question he threw at her, everything she said was predetermined, to keep her secret safe.

Her secret. What about it made her not want to tell him? Was it dangerous? Or was it so stupid she'd be too embarrassed to tell anyone. He didn't know. He let his feet drag him around for a little longer before deciding to go home. Maybe he could talk to her at home. Maybe at home they'd have a calm conversation, and get somewhere. She should be home right now. She left earlier than he had; she should be home.

When Tenji finally made it home, he noticed as her shoes were nowhere in sight. Everyone else was home besides her. Worried, he quickly made his way through the house and up to her room. He knocked on the door. Nothing. He knocked again. Nothing. He grabbed the door knob, and twisted it. Surprised filled him. If she was mad at him and was home, she'd lock the door, and scream at him to go away. That's how it's always been up until now.

He opened the room, and glanced around. She wasn't anywhere in sight. She wasn't here. Feeling the left over anger he shut the door, and made his way to his room. It was Sakura. He knew she was going to come back. This was her home, and if she had come back they would talk then, and maybe then she'd tell him, but somewhere inside he knew that she wasn't going to. She wasn't going to tell him anything, just like how she didn't tell him anything today.

Inside his room he laid on his bed with his arm over his eyes as he thought about their short lived conversation. He sighed, realizing how bad his confrontation was. He didn't plan for it to go that way. He only wanted to talk to her about why she didn't want to make any friends. He didn't think such a topic would lead to them arguing, destroying the trust that they had with one another. He sighed again and rolled onto his side, staring at the white wall. What was he supposed to do now? He was sure that tomorrow morning was going to be awkward.

They had never fought like this. When they fought it was about small stuff, like food and homework, nothing else. He didn't think... well he never thought that something like this could break their strong relationship, and he never thought that their relationship was this fragile. They were family, there was a bond that couldn't be broken easily or that's what he was told.

There was a knock on his door. He instantly stood up and walked over to it, hoping that Sakura was the one behind the door. When he opened it, he was surprised to see his older brother standing outside of his door. Touya, was rarely home nowadays. He was too busy with work and college to come home, and if he wasn't he was spending what little time he had with their mother. Touya walked into his room, and looked around before taking a seat on his bed. Tenji wondered why he was suddenly appeared, like he knew that he and Sakura had gotten into a fight.

"Long time no see, Botan-chan." He said with a cheeky grin.

* * *

And done.

Let me know what you think. Stuff like that keeps me going.


	10. Chapter 10: What She Needs Most

Update, yes!

And now to continue the story, that feels like it's going to finish by how fast it's moving but it won't be done for awhile.

Hope you guys continue to read this story.

Remember I do not own CCS.

Now for the story.

* * *

Tenji stared blankly at Touya, who sat silently on his bed. Taking a moment to realize that he was there, Tenji finally moved to sit on the chair at his desk, moving it to sit directly across from Touya. "So? Where's the Kaijuu?" He asked. Tenji smiled at the name. That was Touya's nickname for Sakura. He liked it when Touya was home, it meant that the entire family was almost together again, but with what just happened the house only felt empty.

"Not home." Tenji answered, his eyes casted to the ground.

"Then where is she?" Tenji stared at Touya. He was never home, so it was strange that he asked for her, but at the same time, it wasn't strange. Touya was just being Touya, and Touya did what he liked when he liked to.

"You're not gonna ask if she's at a friend's place?"

"No. She wouldn't go over to a friends place when it's her day to cook." Touya said. "But, I'll do it because she's not here, and since it's been awhile." There was a long silence between them after that. It seemed to Tenji that Touya wanted to talk about something, either that or Touya knew that he and Sakura were in the middle of a fight. "So, whatcha guys fight about this time?" Touya finally questioned. Tenji sighed. He knew that Touya knew they fought. Touya wasn't one to meddle uness things were serious, and so that meant this fight between him and Sakura was serious, more serious than he had thought it was.

"How'd you know?" Tenji questioned resting his head on his chair.

"Well, for one Sakura isn't home, and it's her turn to cook. Two, you're sulking. You don't sulk like this for anyone but Sakura." He watched as Touya smirked. He hated how Touya was always right, loved the fact that Touya was always there for something like this. "So?"

"We fought about why she couldn't make friends."

"But she does have a friend."

"You know about her too."

"For awhile now. I caught her going into a room that wasn't mother's. She wasn't really that good at hiding it." Touya said as if it was obvious. "So? Why now? She's never really had friends before."

"Because, some of my friends want to be her friend, but she doesn't want to."

"So, what's the problem?"

"They all say that when she's with them she's enjoying herself."

"And do you know why she can't?" Touya's voice sounded like he knew something, something he didn't and he didn't like that.

"No. She doesn't want to tell me."

"Well, there's gotta be a reason why she can't tell you." Touya said, "Look, she's a girl and your a boy. She's gonna want her privacy, and she's gonna have secrets. We all have secrets."

"You too?"

"Well, yeah. I have my secrets. Do I trust you? Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna tell you them. They're mine and mine alone until I want to tell you."

"That just tells me you don't trust me."

"I bet you have your own secrets." Touya said and he was right. He did have his own secrets. "And you probably won't tell me. I trust you so it doesn't matter to me if I know your secret or not. I'll wait until you decide to tell. I'll wait, five, ten years, forever even."

Tenji got up, walked over to Touya and sat down next to him. "Why do you only act like an older brother when you need to?" Tenji mumbled.

"Hey, watch what you say. I am your older brother." Touya grinned and messed with Tenji's hair before standing up. "Anyways, don't worry about Sakura. She'll be fine. You should just trust her. I'm sure she trusts you. Just wait until she wants to tell you. She will eventually. I mean you guys are family, twins."

He watched as Touya left his room, leaving him alone again. Tenji closed his eyes and sighed. Touya was right. He was always right when it came to them, and because he was always right, felt really bad now . He remembered their talk, and how Sakura kept telling him to just trust her, but did he? No, he didn't and now that it was like this, he didn't know if they could go back to the way they were before. Touya said they could but he felt like they couldn't. He had scared her, something that he never want to do to her. He even saw her flinch and he didn't apologize, or try to calm her.

Tenji laid on his bed and curled his knees to his chest. He felt really bad, but it would be a while before he could apologize to her. She was stubborn, and if she wanted to she could find ways to avoid him. She's done it with others, so he wasn't hard to avoid either. He sighed and turned to face the white walls again. He hoped their relation wasn't strained because of this. He hoped they could go back to normal after all this blows over.

Syaoran walked quietly with the twins in either of his arms, watching them as they clung onto him. The three of them had just left the store with all of their needs for that night. The bags they had gotten from the store, were in a duffel bag that hung from his side, adding more weight to his already very heavy body. The three of them had gone shopping because they were running out of food, and because it was just him most of the time he never really had to worry about food before, but now that the twins were there he found that his fridge was always stocked with food.

Sakura had always been the one to mention that he needed food and every time she did they'd all go together and pick what they wanted to eat. Usually they would get some snacks for the twins, and ingredients for that night's dinner, but because Sakura wasn't here he decided that something simple like omelette rice was good because he didn't know what the twins could eat at the age of a year and half. He was sure it was just milk, but at the same time he didn't know if milk was enough.

He smiled at them as they pointed out everything and anything even though it was dark. He wondered how'd they act when it was morning, when they could see things like animals. They continued to walk, until he felt Suppie and Kero wiggle in his arms, wondering what they wanted. He groaned, and set them down, not wanting them to fall from his arms. As soon as he had, he watched as they scampered off. He growled with frustration before quickly following after them. He wondered what it was that caught their attention in the darkness, and he was surprise that they could even see in the darkness.

He followed closely behind them, noticing as they entered the park. As they walked through the park, he wondered how deep they were going to go. It wasn't that it wasn't safe out, but it was more of the fact that they could see this far into the park, and that only peaked his interest even more. When they came to the playground in the middle of the park, he noticed someone sitting on the top of the slide, and as they got closer, he realized who it was that was sitting there. It was Sakura.

How the twins had spotted her from the street he didn't know, but he was glad that they had found her. He had been wanting to talk to her since the other day. He felt bad for prying into her business, but he still wanted to know her secrets. He felt like it wasn't because she just didn't want to be friends with them, that there was a whole different reason. A more complicated reason to how she acted.

Syaoran watched as the twins approached her at the bottom of the slide. He smiled as they tried climbing up the slide to get to Sakura. The surprise look on her face, told him that they had gotten her attention, and this made him wonder why she was there. He watched her as she watched Kero waddled over to him. He smiled feeling the small hand grab onto his hands. Kero tugged at his hand, and glanced up when Syaoran did not move. Kero made a weird noise and turned to look at Sakura before looking back at Syaoran with a smile. The smile that adorn on Kero's face made Syaoran melt, finally letting Kero drag him to Sakura. Kero repeated shouted out Sakura's name, as he dragged him towards her.

Syaoran watched as Sakura glanced at him with wide eyes, and he knew then she wondered what he was doing there. When he finally reached the girl he stood next to her looking up at her. She wasn't that high up, but high enough to make him look up at her. He looked at Suppie who still tried to get to Sakura, before picking him up and handing him to Sakura. Suppie squealed with delight, screaming Sakura's name. Syaoran smiled and looked down at the blonde twin who looked as though he couldn't believe what Syaoran had done. Syaoran laughed and picked him up in his arms, facing Kero towards Sakura.

"Hey, having a nice night?" He asked, noticing now that something was not right with Sakura. When she had glanced at him, he noticed her tear stricken face. The instant thought of her crying did not please him, made him feel angry.

"It's… been alright." She answer. He didn't expect him to answer him. She never did when it came to questions like these. "Well, better now that the twins are here." A small smile appeared on her face at the mention of the twins. It was always the twin, and not himself. It wasn't fair.

"So?" He hesitantly started, "Whatcha doing here so late?" He wasn't sure if Sakura was going to answer because the question was kind of personal, and she never answered questions that were personal, or kind of personal.

"I could ask you the same." She replied, not bothering to answer his question. Syaoran internally sighed wondering what he was hoping for. He knew she wasn't going to answer his question. She never did, or when she did the answer never related to the question, or she was questioning him with the same question.

Syaoran patted the duffel bag at her side showing her that they had just come back from shopping. She nodded her head and looked away. The mood had not gotten any better. She looked alright, but he knew she wasn't. Even if he didn't spend that much time with her, it was much more than when he watched her a from a far. Even then he could tell what she felt. Call it creepy, but he had spent four years looking at her from afar, there was never a chance for him to get close to her until now. Sure her brother was an excuse but even then, he still didn't find any opportunities to befriend her.

He didn't know if he should ask the question they both knew he wanted to ask. It was in the air, and in the way he stood. He couldn't help but want to ask. What else was he supposed to do? He didn't like this mood, it was awkward, and he didn't like seeing her like this. He wanted to make her smile like when she smiled at the twins.

"Wanna eat at my place?" He asked, suddenly. That had not been what he wanted say, but it was better than not saying anything.

"Sure." She instantly replied sliding down the slide with Suppie. At the bottom of the slide she stood and moved over to him. "When did they learn to walk?" She suddenly asked, remembering that Suppie and Kero had walked to her.

"They always knew how to."

"They never walk when I'm around."

"They liked being carried by you." He noticed the mood around them had lightened, and she seemed to be feeling a little better. They walked in silence all the way to his house, and it wasn't long before they reached his house. They approached the front door and he opened the door, holding it open for her. She thanked him and walked in, the twins following after her. It was like watching a mother duck and her ducklings. The thought made Syaoran smile before he finally walked into the house himself.

He watched as Sakura, made herself comfortable in his living, laying on the couch. She turn the TV on and watched whatever anime that had popped up. Kero and Suppie were sprawled all over her, giggling and laughing. He shrugged and made his way to the kitchen and began preparing the food. There wasn't much preparation since all he was making was an omelette, and so it wasn't long before he pulled the pans out.

Syaoran quietly drizzled the oil in the pan and tilted it, watching as the oil moed slowly across the pan. He would wait for the pan to heat up a bit before he finally, put the eggs in. Hearing something approach him from behind he turned around and stared at the girl who stood leaning against the frame of the door.

"What're you making for dinner?" She asked pushing off the frame and moving next to him, leaning against the counter.

"Omelette Rice." He answered. "What?" She had given him a disbelieving look. "I can make what I want. If you must want something extravagant for dinner, then I must tell you, my lady, that we do not have any ingredients." He listened with wide eyes as Sakura laughed. He didn't think she would laugh at such simple words like that. He thought it was impossible for him to make her laugh, let alone smile. He thought about it, and as he thought about it he came to realize that maybe he was getting closer to befriending her.

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Because." He simply answer, earning a punch from her. It was a light and playful hit, but still a hit.

"That's not a answer." She said staring at him. Her laughter died when she noticed that he wasn't laughing. "Uh─" But before she could say anything he began to speak.

"You didn't just hit me now did you?" He questioned sarcastically.

"Uh~ No~" She lied. She watched as he turned the stove off and turned to face her. He slowly stepped towards her, and she slipped away from the counter. She was not going to get trapped there. "What are you doing?" She questioned, stopping to look at him. He took another painfully slow step towards her.

"Seriously what are you doing?" She questioned again. He ignored her taking another step.

"You want to know?" He questioned, taking another step. A smile formed on his face, and a glint appeared in his eyes when she nodded her head. She didn't like the look of the smile or the glint in his eyes. It screamed danger. Sakura glanced at the kitchen door and back to Syaoran before she darted off towards the living room. Syaoran was quick to follow after her, and the two found themselves standing in the living room. Sakura behind the couch and Syaoran on the opposite side.

"No." Sakura said, knowing what he might possibly do.

"Come on. It won't hurt."

"No."

"Sakura."

"No."

"Then I shall come and get you then." He watched as a small smile appeared on her face. He quickly darted around the couch, chasing her to the other side. They ran in circles for a couple of minutes before Suppie crawled over to Syaoran wanting to join them in their fun. Syaoran yelled as he tried to stop himself. He summer salted over the boy and onto his back, where Sakura was quick to sit on top of him. Suppie and Kero had joined her, wanting to play as well.

"No." Sakura firmly said again, giggling as both Kero and Suppie repeated after her, pointing accusing fingers at Syaoran.

"Okay, I won't." Syaoran said. "Now could you get off of me."

Sakura nodded her head, and began moving the twins off of him. When she had pulled them off of him, she began getting up herself. Just as she began standing she felt as Syaoran flipped over, switching their positions. He stared down at her with a smile, holding her arms above her head, with his legs on either sides of hers.

"I win." He pronounced triumphantly.

"Cheats." She called out, kicking her legs.

"Well, I wasn't finished, but I was going to let go, until you started kicking." He said, before taking both of her wrist into one of his hands, and began tickling her with the other. Sakura laughed and struggled as Syaoran tickled her.

"Stop! Li-kun." She screamed, laughing all the while.

"Stop!" She screamed again. "Syaoran, stop."

His tickling came to an abrupt stopped, and he felt as she tensed underneath him. His amber eyes stared into her bright green ones. They had both realized what she had said, and Syaoran liked the way it sounded. It was the first time she had called out his name, and in every way it sounded right. From her he didn't like hearing his last name. It put a distance between them, and he wanted to be closer to her. As if remembering what they were doing Sakura pushed him off, and stood up, walking to the kitchen. She knew that he would follow after her like a lost little puppy.

In the kitchen the two stood silently. Syaoran by the door, and Sakura by the sink, her back to him. He couldn't go back to being nonexistent in her life. Not after what just happened. It was obvious to the both of them that Sakura, didn't like being alone, that this was her normal self. Not that cold one that was just an act.

"Sakura," He said quietly, hoping to get a response. "This is what you need. This is what your supposed to be acting like. That cold and mean person you were before, that's not you. You need a friend, someone you can spill all your secrets to. You can't be by yourself anymore. I can see it, you have problems, but you can't tell anyone. Just tell me, and if not me then Meiling. She'd help you. She's your friend right?"

She didn't say anything, bringing Syaoran down again. "Well, then I'll leave you alone if you tell me why you were at the park that late? That and only that, then I'd leave you alone, like you want me to."

"Fine, but after that, you and all of your friends will leave me alone, right?"

"Me yes, them. . . maybe."

Then she told him. Told him that she got into a fight with her brother. He listened and didn't say anything because he felt like if he did she'd stop. As soon as she was finished telling him, she left, not eating dinner with them.

After she left he finished making dinner and fed the twins. He thought that if the twins were here he'd get closer to her, and he did get closer to her, but then he saw that in doing so he had only grew farther from her. After dinner he put the twins to sleep, and laid in bed, just thinking. He thought about everything she said, and none of it added up. He knew that this was what was best for her. That this is what she needed the most. And what that was some friends.

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Alright all done. Hope you've enjoyed this chapter.


	11. Chapter 11:Words On A Board

So here's chapter 11 a little late, but it's better than never.

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Chapter 11: Their Beginning

Sakura, sat in her chair and stared at Touya, who smirked at her. She had woken up late again, for the fifth time that week. She groaned and got up, making her way to the bathroom. She hated how she didn't know how to not wake up late. Waking up late was something that just happened to her. She set three alarm clocks, all set to go off one after the other, and they never worked because she slept through all of them. How she was able sleep through all of them was a mystery to herself.

"You know if you keep getting up late, you're never gonna get a job." Touya teased as he ate his food. "And if you don't hurry you're gonna be late for school."

Sakura turned to look at the time, her eyes widening. She glared at Touya who still held his smirk, and quickly finished her food. She couldn't believe him. He could do his job as an older brother and wake her up, but no, he was just going to let her get to school late. Sakura quickly gathered her dishes and put them in the sink before rushing off to school. She was not going to be late today, even if she had five minutes left to get to school..

When Sakura got to school, she noticed as the gates were closed. She clicked her tongue and quickly climbed over. She didn't make it to school on time, but she was determined to make it to class on time. Running inside she quickly switched shoes and ran all the way up the stairs, hoping to not run into any teachers. Relief filled her as she noticed other students standing around in the hallways, which meant that she still had a little time left to get to class, but it wasn't much as the halls were mostly empty.

She spotted her classroom, and noticed her teacher making his way to their classroom. A smile made its way to her lips as she still had time. She wasn't considered late if she made it into the class before the teacher did. Sure she was running in the halls, but she wasn't going to be late and that's all that mattered. She dashed past her teacher who was next to the door and slid in. She was safe. She quickly made her way to her desk acting as though she had always been in the class. A smile appeared on her face as her classmates laughed at her sudden appearance in the room.

"Kinomoto-san," It was the teacher, Terada-sensei. "Don't run in the hall. If your going to be late to class, get up earlier so you don't have to race me to class or the time."

"Then I'm not late?" Sakura questioned. She watched as Terada sighed, and she triumphantly pumped her hand in the air. Sakura turned to look at her friends who all smiled at her, but one. She stuck her tongue out at him and he chuckled.

The morning classes had gone by, and it wasn't long before lunch had come. Sakura and her friends usually ate in the classroom, gathered by her desk. It had a perfect view of the courtyard where they could usually see the boys playing. It was the same conversation over and over. Her group of friends were split two ways, during lunch. The girls usually ate around Sakura, while the boys, who ate nothing but bread, played out in the courtyard. It was after school when they all hung out together, going to the movies or karaoke. It was the same things everyday.

It wasn't long before her girl friends all gathered around her, with their lunch out on display on the desk. Sakura ogled at the food, always pleased at what her friends brought. It was a mystery as to why they always brought delicious food, she never had time in the morning to bring lunch, and so her friends always let her take from them.

"Sakura, that was a really close one this morning." One of her friends said, as she picked at the food.

"You could say it was a new record." Another one said, with a smile.

"Guys, it's not my fault." Sakura responded, she didn't like how they assumed she wasn't trying to get to school on time, but she knew that everything they said was a joke to begin with. They all looked at her incredulously, and she shook her head. "I'm serious, I set three alarm clocks."

"And you slept through all of them." Her book reading friend asked, not believing what she was hearing. "Sakura sometimes I can't believe your human. Three alarms clocks would have woken anyone up. Your just a phenomenon."

Sakura shook her head and stuff another tamagoyaki in her mouth, loving the feeling of t melting in her mouth. She listened as her friends talked. They talked about all music and food, deciding on what they should bring for lunch the next day. Sakura, didn't participate in the talk because she didn't care what they brought. As long as she had the chance to eat the food then she didn't care. She peered out the window, and noticed as the boys were finishing up their sandwiches and bread. They had a volley ball next to them, so it seemed that was their activity for the day.

"Who are you looking at?" Sakura turned and faced her friends, it was her best friend who had asked with an expecting look.

"What are you even saying? You know who she's looking at." Her other friend said, poking at her best friend.

"Guys." Sakura grumbled. It was the same talk everyday. She kept telling herself that she should stop looking out the window because it always brought teasing upon her, but she could never seem to stop. Her eyes traveling after him, was a habit that was uncontrollable.

"What? It's not a secret. Everyone in school knows except him." Her friend said. "Why do you think no one confesses to him anymore. They're all set that you two are dating. Or at least that's what they say in their minds."

"Guys, we're not dating." Sakura argue.

"We know, it's just you two need to hurry up and start dating." Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head. She couldn't believe her friends. They were all so strange, though she must have been just as strange, for she was friends with them.

That afternoon, after school had let out, she found herself alone at her desk. She had just woken up from her nap, wondering why no one had bothered to wake her up. There had also been another thing that bothered her and that was the fact that she was tired. She was hardly ever tired, and only became tired after nine thirty, so being tired right now didn't make any sense to her.

Sakura lean back against her chair and brought her arms up, stretching them. Her eyes traveled out the window before to the front of the room where the teacher would be standing. It made her wonder why she hadn't been caught sleeping in class, but at the same time she was sure she got caught, and if she did the teacher probably couldn't wake her up.

Standing up Sakura gathered her stuff and stretched once more, before looking at the time. She was relieved to see that she had only slept five minutes past the bell, meaning that her friends were still on school grounds. She didn't know what they were doing, but she could guess because it was the same things everyday. Her best friend went to choir, her book reading friends went to the library, her quiet friend went to piano lessons, and her energetic friend went to cheer practice. Same thing everyday.

Sakura shook her head and made her way to the door. When she made it to the door she reached out to slide it open, and unexpectedly it slid open before her hand could touch the door. Startled, Sakura jumped back and looked up. It was him. Sakura let out a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I could've had a heart attack." She said backing up to let him through.

"Sorry, I thought you'd still be asleep by the time I returned." He responded. Sakura watched as he walked towards her desk. It was then that she noticed the bag sitting on top of the desk behind hers.

"And, if I was how long were you gonna let me sleep?"

"Until you woke up."

"What if it got late?" He shrugged.

"Well, I thought you needed it. You've been sleeping more and more. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just. . . tired."

"Are you sleeping on time?"

"It depends on what you mean by on time." Sakura smiled watching as he shook his head.

"What you sleep at midnight?"

"No, I get to bed by eight, nine thirty the latest." He raised a brow at her, not believing a word she said.

"I'm serious. I sleep at eight." She walked over to him, and punched him. "I'm not kidding." He laughed and ruffled her hair as if she was a child.

"Okay, I believe you."

"Lies!" Sakura screamed.

"Okay. Okay. I believe you." Sakura was about to argue that he didn't when he covered her mouth with his hand. "Sh, don't say anymore. Just believe it when I say I believe you." He took his hands and placed them on the sides of her face, squishing her face together. Slowly he let his head make her nod and he smiled before dashing to the whiteboard. "Anyways I wanna show you something." Sakura sighed and watched as he wrote on the whiteboard.

Sakura watched his broad back with much interest as he wrote on the whiteboard. She wondered what he wanted to show her. It was obvious that whatever it was could have been done anywhere, but it seemed to her that he couldn't wait to do it somewhere else. When he finished with the first character, she sighed when she saw that it was in english. She sucked at English. English and math. She let her head drop on the desk, listening as the loud thud rang through the classroom.

"Sakura? What're you doing?" She looked up, noticing as he stared back at her.

"English. Seriously?"

"Just wait. You know this one." He said turning back to the whiteboard as if it was way more interesting than she was.

"I'm not sure if I do?"

"You do. Trust me." Hearing no response from the girl, he turned around again. "You don't trust me?"

"I do."

"Then, you'll know how to read this one." He smiled, and faced the whiteboard again.

Sakura watched as he concentrate on writing. Whatever it was it seemed important since he was taking forever to write it. When he finished he stood in front of it only making it possible for her to only see part of it. She stood up and walked over to him. She stood directly in front of him, staring at his eyes. She could see a strange glint in his eyes, and she wondered what it meant.

"Move over I can't see it." Sakura demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. He stepped aside and Sakura read the words from left to right. Her eyes widen when she realized that she could read it, but only the english part. He had also written something in Chinese. She couldn't read Chinese, and he knew that.

She didn't turn to face him as she stared at the whiteboard. Taking the marker into her hand she began writing her response. She stood in front of it the way he had and smiled at him. She could tell he was curious. He always was when it came to her. Or when she wasn't paying attention to him. He stood in front of her and peeked over her shoulder, reading the words she had written. A smile formed on his face as he stepped back and looked at her.

Sakura loved that smile, it was probably one of the many reason why she loved him. He placed his hands on her hips, and she reached up, placing his arms around his neck. He lent in and placed a quick kiss on her lips. She stared up at him with disappointment. She had thought that when they kissed it would last longer, and as if reading her mind he leaned in again, this time kissing her longer. They stood there for what seemed like forever, and when they finally separated, they realized that they were still in school.

"We should probably erase this." He said. Sakura only nodded watching as he began erasing his written feeling. She took a hold of the eraser and slowly erased her response. It was their little secret, for now. No one needed to know until tomorrow. When she finished she looked at him, as he took his time. It looked as though he didn't want to erase it.

"Come on. We can't be here all day." Sakura said, chiding him to go faster. She watched as he quickly erased the board before going back to the desk to grab their bags. Sakura waited for him by the door and it wasn't long before they were out of the classroom, traveling down the hall and out the building. "Hey?"

"Hm?"

"What did the Chinese part say?" He looked down at Sakura and smiled, before leaning towards her ear and whispering Chinese to her. She turned to look at him with furrowed brows. That was not what she meant when she wanted him to say it to her, and she knew he knew that. He was probably teasing her like he always was. Sakura sighed and shrugged her shoulders. She wasn't going to get anything out of him, so she didn't question him any further.

It wasn't long before she had reached her house, and there they shared another kiss. He said his farewells before leaving. She stood there watching him until his figure disappeared from view. Once he was gone she headed inside. Inside, she noticed as there were more shoes at the entrance than there were people in her family. Curious she made her way to the living room. As she approached the living room she could hear unfamiliar and familiar voices. She peeked around the door frame, and spotted Touya, and her father sitting with two unfamiliar, but familiar men. At the sight of them, her heart began to race and the air around her became hot. Her legs suddenly became weak and she fell to her knees catching all of their attention.

"Sakura, your―" Touya began, but was stopped seeing that she had collapsed on the floor. "Sakura!" Touya and Fujitaka were quick to move towards her.

Fujitaka picked Sakura up and rest his hand on her forehead. It was hot. Worried, he excused himself and carried Sakura up to her room, Touya followed closely after them, just as worried as his father. When they reached her room, he quietly laid Sakura on her bed, before ordering Touya to get a cool cloth to put on Sakura's forehead. Touya nodded his head and was gone in an instant, and just as fast as he left he came back, a wet towel in hand. Touya placed the wet towel on Sakura's forehead watching as his father left to finish their discussion with the men downstairs.

After a couple minutes of silence, Sakura opened her eyes and looked at Touya's worried face, a smile appearing on her face. "What're you so worried about?" She felt as Touya grabbed her hand and pulled it up. He looked as if he was praying to God. "Touya, I'm okay. It's just a fever." Sakura said, though she herself knew that it wasn't. It had been way too sudden to be just a fever, but even then she didn't know what it could have been. She hoped that whatever it was that came over her, disappeared as fast as it came. She didn't want to worry her family, nor her friends. "I won't disappear like mom. I'll be here tomorrow. I'll be fine tomorrow." She repeatedly said, her head beginning to become hazy.


	12. Chapter 12: Shattered Pieces

So, here's another wonderful chapter.

There was something I was supposed to add in one of the earlier chapters but I forgot, and that's the genre of the story. It's not just romance/friendship.

Well, enjoy, this chapter should probably make more sense.

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Syaoran groaned as he let his head fall on the desk. He was regretting what he said to Sakura the other day. He didn't know how he was going to convince everyone to leave her alone. He knew some of them would back off if he just asked, but some people just didn't care what he had to say. If anything he knew the hardest person to convince was going to be Tomoyo because she was set on making Sakura her friend. Tomoyo was going to keep on trying whether he or Sakura liked it. That's just how Tomoyo was. She didn't care, about any obstacle in her way. She'd plow right through them until she got her way. It was her way or. . . there wasn't an or. It was just her way.

When Tenji walked into the classroom, he watch as Tenji took a seat at his desk. Syaoran wondered what was wrong with Tenji. He didn't seem to be his usual happy mood. Tenji seemed to be the exact opposite of his happy self. He look more regretful and sad, than happy and annoying. Tenji seemed to be in the same state as Syaoran. Sad and regretful. Syaoran stood and walked over to Tenji, taking a seat on Tenji's desk. Tenji glanced up at him, before letting his head fall on the desk. There was a loud thud, catching everyone's attention.

"What's wrong?" Syaoran asked, seeing that it was more serious than he thought it was. By then all of their other friends had gathered around them, all but Eriol, who had yet to arrive.

"Have you seen Sakura?" He asked.

"This morning?" Syaoran glanced at everyone, who shook their heads. "No, none of us have." He groaned and began lightly smashing his head against his desk. This made everyone worry. It was strange to see him like this. They could all assume that it had something to do with Sakura. He was only ever like this when something happened between them. It then occur to Syaoran what could have been the problem. "She didn't go home last night?" He watched as Tenji momentarily stopped banging his head on the desk to shake his head, before going back to banging his head.

"Stop. Your gonna kill all the good brain cells you have left." Chiharu butt in, thinking that maybe a joke would make him feel a little better. It didn't seem to make him feel better, but it did make him stop.

"I thought she went home last night." Syaoran said. He suddenly felt stupid. Now it made sense on why she didn't want return home. She was probably still angry at him, and didn't want to see him. Syaoran sighed and slapped Tenji across the head.

"What the―? What was that for?" Tenji shouted sitting up in his chair.

"You fought with Sakura! I literally thought that was impossible." Syaoran shouted. "Especially between you two."

"How do you know!" Tenji screamed, pointing a finger at Syaoran.

"I found her at the park last night, and brought her home." Syaoran suddenly felt angry again and decided that slapping Tenji would make him feel better. And it did.

"What was she doing at the park?" Tenji asked, taking the slap from Syaoran. He felt at that point that he deserved it.

"I don't know! You're the one who made her angry." Syaoran said, though he did know why she was there. She had told him, though she was very reluctant to tell him. Syaoran sighed. He didn't know why he was acting like this. He was just as guilty as Tenji. He had also gotten into an argument with Sakura, so he didn't know why he was pinning all of their troubles on Tenji. Syaoran groaned and ran his hands threw his hair. Sakura was so stubborn, it made things difficult for everyone.

"Well, I don't think we should worry too much about it. The stress will kill us." Chiharu said trying to dismiss the conversation.

"By the way, where's Eriol?" Tomoyo asked, looking around. He still had yet to appear.

Eriol silently walked staring at his phone. He had gotten a strange message yesterday night and he didn't know what it meant or who sent it. He read the message over and over wondering what it could've meant and why it was sent to him the way it was sent.

Eriol sighed and ran a hand through his hair, and as he did a familiar figure caught his attention. It was Sakura. She stood leaning against a wall, her face showing exhaustion. His attention diverged from his phone, and the warning bells in his head went off. He was now worried. Worried for someone who wasn't his friend. Someone who didn't want to be with anyone.

He ran over to Sakura, setting his bag down, taking her into his arms. She was breathing heavily, and her face was red. He placed a hand on her forehead, feeling the heat that come off it. She had a fever. He didn't know where she lived, and he was already too far from home to take her to his home. The closest place he could take her to was the school, but that was still a long walk away, especially if he had to carry someone. He tossed his bag over his shoulder and lifted Sakura up. He would get to school on time, but to class, maybe not.

When he arrived at school, it was just as he thought. He had made it on time. He glanced down at Sakura and sighed. He still had to carry Sakura to the infirmary, and wait for the nurse to appear so he could tell the nurse what he knew. He walked quietly with Sakura in his arms, think about what would have happened to her if he hadn't found her. Someone would have probably found her and brought her to the hospital. It wasn't long before they reached the infirmary, and just like he thought it was empty. He laid Sakura on a bed and waited. He thought that maybe he should go to class, then maybe he wouldn't be late.

Eriol shrugged and looked at Sakura, who wore a pained expression. He wondered why Sakura had come out to be like this. From the beginning he didn't see her like everyone else. He didn't see her as the cold and mean person everyone saw her as. He saw her more of a person who intentionally isolated herself and was hurt emotionally. She seemed to just be defending herself. From what? He didn't know.

"Syaoran. . ." Eriol looked at Sakura, who had mumbled his best friend's name.

His brows furrowed, wondering why she had just mumbled Syaoran's name. He was about to think deeper about it, but stopped when the nurse had appeared asking him what was wrong. It wasn't long before he had left for class. With ten minutes left of class, he wondered if it was really worth going. It was only homeroom, so it wouldn't any of his grades. He'd probably skip the last ten minutes and then go to second period.

As he walked to his class, his mind wandered around. It went between Sakura and the text he got on his phone yesterday. The text itself was strange. It talked about stars, space, and time, but it wasn't just facts about them, it was like a riddle of some sort, a poem. He couldn't tell. All he knew was that one, he was either reading into it too deeply or two, that it really was trying to tell him something. Something that dealt with stars, space and time.

When he made it to class there was still about five minutes left. It wouldn't make any sense to walk in when there was only five minutes of class left. He'd just wait until class was over. As the time passed his thoughts went back to Sakura. Sakura had everyone's attention whether she liked it or not, and he didn't know why. It was like everyone was attracted to her, whether it be through curiosity or hatred. Not him though. It didn't seem to affect him.

That was probably one of many of the weird things Sakura was. If she was mean, people didn't like her, and talked badly about her. If she was nice, people loved her and went to talk to her. There was no one that didn't care about her. Eriol couldn't say he didn't care about her but he cared less. He didn't like that tugging feeling of being attracted her. He didn't like it. It was unnatural.

When he realized it, the bell had rung. Eriol slid the door open and walked into class, dodging the teacher as he came in. The teacher looked at him before walking past him. Eriol heaved a sigh before continuing to his seat. He placed his bag on his desk before turning to face his friends. They had gather next to Syaoran's desk again.

"Where were you?" Tomoyo asked, turning to face Eriol.

"I was gonna be on time. Though I did run into something. . . more like someone interesting." They watched as he paused and looked at Tenji. His eyes traveled from Tenji to Syaoran, whom both looked confused. Eriol shook his head and sighed.

"For real?" Tomoyo gasped, placing a hand over her mouth. Eriol nodded knowing that Tomoyo would be the first to get it. She understood him the best. "You too. Thought you weren't interested."

"Well, now I am." Eriol said with a smiled, while Tomoyo squealed and jumped up and down. She threw herself at Eriol and hugged him. He gave a chuckle. He didn't think encountering Sakura was this much of a benefit, but if it was like that then he didn't mind if he continued with whatever it is that they wanted from Sakura.

"Back up." Tenji announced. "What are you two talking about?"

Tomoyo looked at Tenji and shook her head. She was disappointed in them. There could only be one obvious person that they were talking about. She didn't think he was this dense.

"Tenji, you've got to be kidding me. We're talking about Sakura. You know your sister." Tomoyo explained.

"What about her?"

"That's the thing." Eriol intervened. "I found her with a fever not far from school. Made me wonder why she was coming if she was that sick. She could barely walk, scratch that, she could barely hold herself up. Well I'm not cold hearted so I wouldn't leave her there like that. I brought her to the infirmary. My question is Tenji, is why was she sick? She was fine the other day wasn't she."

Eriol noticed as the both Syaoran and Tenji sighed. He raised a brow and looked at Tomoyo who only shook her head. He assumed they had both done something they regretted. How it concerned Sakura, he didn't know.

"So, you gonna tell me or what?" Eriol questioned. He watched as his other friends shook their heads.

"They both got into a fight with Sakura." Chiharu said. "And it turns out that after each fight she ran away from them. She didn't go home last night. She probably got sick from sleeping outside."

Eriol heaved a sigh and shook his head. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. These two idiots got into a fight with the girl who's intentionally keeping herself isolated. There was no way they were ever going to fix her problem if they kept getting into fights with her.

"So, what're you guys going to do now?" Eriol asked. They didn't answer, giving him a clear answer. They didn't know what they were going to do next. They had already broken the fragile relationship they've built with her, and picking up the piece was going to be hard since those pieces were tiny millions of pieces.

"She probably doesn't want to see them. . . or any of us." Tomoyo said sadly.

"Well someone has to go see her. She's sick and needs to go home. It was a really bad fever. She was burning up. She looked to be in pain." Eriol baited. He wanted to see who would go see her first. Syaoran or Tenji, they both thought highly of Sakura and loved her equally, though their love for her were two different kinds of love.

He watched silently as they stared at one another. They were unsure of what to do. They knew at the moment that Sakura did not want to see them and they couldn't cope with that. They needed to see her no matter what, but she was probably not going to allow them to see her. She'd run before they could step into the room.

"So?" He saw their inner turmoil. It seemed to him that Syaoran was going to go see her. Syaoran didn't seem to care about what Sakura said anymore. Tomoyo was the same. They were going to do what they wanted to do. The only problem was what made Syaoran stop. Something must have happened to him and Sakura for him to not go rushing to her.

"How about I go see her?" Eriol said. "She won't want to see me, but I'm sure she'd rather see me than you guys." He looked at their dejected faces. It was something they would have to get over. Not only was he going to see her for them, he was going to see if he could pull at her strings and get her to answer some of his questions. Though he highly doubted that he'd be able to get her to spill whatever secrets she had. Even Syaoran couldn't get any secrets out of her.

"Then I'll go too." Tomoyo cheerfully said.

"Not today. She probably doesn't want to see more than one of us at a time. She might feel trapped so, maybe next time, Tomoyo." Eriol turned to look at them again. "I'll do it at lunch. If she's still here then good for me. If not then oh well."

And then the bell rang.


	13. Chapter 13: The Nurse

Well here's another chapter. Nothing will make sense until deeper into the story.

The last few chapters confusing, yes, but bear with it.

* * *

Eriol stared down at Sakura, who laid vulnerable on the bed. Her eyes were shut tight, and sweat ran down the sides of her face. She looked to be in distress, something he didn't think Sakura had because she was used to being alone. He wondered what she was dreaming about. What made her feel so distress and unprotected. Whatever it was he was sure it wasn't a dream, but rather a nightmare.

He watched as she moved restlessly in her sleep. Worried, he shook her awake, watching as it took her moment to awaken. He watched as Sakura's eyes slowly fluttered open. Still dazed from her sleep, she glanced around as if she was lost or in an unknown place. When her eyes landed on his figure, he noticed the relief in her eyes.

"Hey, Eriol-kun." She muttered quietly, her eyes half closed. Eriol's eyes widen at her confusing words. He knew that they shouldn't have been at that level. They weren't even friends, at least not at the moment. He didn't spend anytime with her the way Syaoran and Tomoyo had. Heck, today was the first time he actually approached her, though it was under the conditions she was in.

"I had a really bad dream." She continued, her voice soft and drifting. "A dream where I was isolated and alone." He noticed as her breathing became deeper. She was slowly falling back to sleep. "Everyone was gone. The world was dark."

"What do you mean?" Eriol asked. He wasn't sure if this was fair. She was out of it and he was trying to get her to spill her secrets. Though he knew this was the only way and probably the only time to get information out of her. "I'm still here." He said playing along with the half-asleep Sakura, though his words seemed to hold a different meaning to her than to him.

He listened as she hummed, as if she was trying to remember in what ways the dream made her feel isolated and alone. She shook her head. It seemed to him she didn't want to remember what the dream was about. It was that or she didn't want to remember anything in general.

He waited a couple of seconds before realizing that Sakura had fallen asleep, leaving him with an unanswered question that only brought more questions. He shook his head and leaned back against his chair, staring up at the ceiling. He listened as the door to the infirmary slid open and closed. He turned to look to see who it was. It was the nurse.

"Well, she doesn't seemed to be getting any better. I'll call her parents to come and pick her up." The nurse said as she walked to her desk. "I would've called earlier, but she was making a big fuss about it. Said she was fine, but that's clearly a lie. Look at her, burning up and I'm sure she's cold as well."

Eriol watched as she took a seat, pulling out a clipboard from her desk. She flipped through some papers, quietly reading what was on it. "It's good that she's found some friends. All the staff think it's a waste that she's alone, and lately she seems to be enjoying herself." The nurse stated, filling in the silence.

"Well, there's a problem with that fact there." Eriol responded. The nurse looked at him with raised brows. "She doesn't consider us her friends. They've been trying to break that wall down, but it seems to not be working at all."

"You should look at it from another point of view. She's changed since she's been with you guys." The nurse smiled, when Eriol raised his brows in question. "I heard she deliberately went to Jamie Han the other day. That's something she wouldn't have done in the past. And although it's forced, she's eating lunch with Tomoyo. If she didn't want to she would have just left."

"That doesn't explain anything though." Eriol said. "I can see she's changing, but it's what happened to her that interests me. It's why she became like that, that interests me. It's clear to anyone who's talked with her that she's not as cold as she makes herself to be. Everyone can see that everything she's doing is just an act. An impossibly hard act to break through."

"Well, I'm not able to disclose that kind of information to you, unless she says we can." The nurse said.

"But you know."

"Sort of."

Eriol paused to think, looking down at his hands, as if that would help him come to a conclusion. The nurse knew why and how Sakura became the way she was. He was sure the principal also knew the reason why and how she became like that.

As he thought about Sakura, he could only count a couple of people who knew why she became like that. There was only six people he could think of. The principal probably knew why she was like that, and so did the nurse. That was two. The other four were most likely her family, but that was where it didn't make any sense.

Eriol growled with frustration and ran a hand through his dark hair. It didn't add up. None of it did. From the looks of things Tenji didn't know anything about the reasons of her becoming like that, and if Tenji didn't know then it would make sense that the rest of her family didn't know either. Unless it was just Tenji who didn't know, and that wouldn't make sense either. The closest person to her was Tenji. He was her twin, how could he not know.

He looked up to get answers from the nurse, only to find that she was no longer there. He wondered when the nurse had even left to begin with. He didn't hear her move, so where could she have gone. He looked around to only find an empty room staring back at him. He quickly noticed that his thoughts were jumbled, making it harder to think about everything that's been going on.

Eriol sighed once more, trying to reset his thoughts, when a strange thought passed through his mind. A thought that only added to his confusion. Who had he been talking to? He knew for a fact that he had just been talking to the nurse, but something at the back of his mind told him otherwise. It told him that he didn't talk to the nurse. It told him that he hadn't talked to anybody, and it only brought more evidence to by telling him that he was the only one in the room. He had been talking to no one. It was just him, and a sleeping Sakura, who couldn't possibly answer him intelligently at the moment.

The thoughts of Sakura instantly shifted his thoughts back to his main objective, as if he hadn't been thinking about anything recently. Eriol's eyes traveled to Sakura, who still laid helplessly on the bed. He noticed as her breathing had become even and the restlessness in her face had disappeared as well. She seemed to be in a more tranquil state than she was in before, as if she had come in terms with something, or someone or something had come to soothe her worries.

"... Syaoran." She muttered quietly, before the door slid open, startling Eriol. Eriol turned around noticing as a tall young man came barreling into the room. His face held a look of worry as he approached them. His dark eyes stared at Eriol as he came closer. There was something in his eyes that didn't matched what his face showed. Worry was a mask, there was something else there.

"God damn. Not again." The young man muttered, when he made it to the bed. Again? Eriol noted the statement. He wasn't going to forget this strange encounter. "Hey, you. How long has she been like this?"

It took Eriol a moment to realize that the young man was talking to him. "Oh, uh, from what I know since this morning, but it could've been since yesterday." He watched as the young man groaned out of frustration before picking Sakura up.

"What're you doing?" Eriol quickly asked, standing up.

"I'm taking her home."

"And you are?"

"Her brother. Touya Kinomoto." He quickly introduced. "Now if you excuse me, we have to get going." He made his way to the door before coming to a sudden stop. "Your a friend of Tenji's right." Eriol nodded. "Tell him he's a idiot." And then he was gone.

Eriol sat down and sighed. There were too many strange things happening today. He didn't think he'd come to school and find Sakura with a fever. He didn't think he was going to have a conversation with… he didn't know, and he didn't think he was going to meet the older brother of both Tenji and Sakura. He shook his head and stood, deciding that he would join his friends before lunch ended.

As Eriol headed towards the door, he watched as it slid open, revealing the person who stood behind it. It was the nurse, but it wasn't the nurse who he had been talking to not too long ago. It was a completely different person.

"Oh! Hey, did someone come and get her?" The nurse said.

"Uh, yeah. Her brother." Eriol answered before stepping out. He stood at the door for a couple of seconds before bolting off towards the classroom. He ran quickly, dodging the students who stood in the hall. He wasn't sure of why he was running but he was. He skipped up the three flights of stairs before sliding the door open. The door hit the frame, startling those in the room. He had caught the attention of everyone, as he stood there catching his breath. After a moment of rest he made his way to his desk and sat himself down.

He felt as his friends stared at him with curious looks. They wanted to know what happened. If she was alright. If she had been awake when he visited. If she was what they talked about. The first to approach him was Tomoyo. She sat on his desk and look down at him expectantly. He could tell she wanted to know, they all did.

He leaned back against his chair and stretched his legs, feeling as his chair slid slightly across the floor. Eriol didn't know what to tell them, except that her brother had taken her home. She had been asleep the entire time… or half asleep. He couldn't tell them things that didn't make any sense to him because if it didn't make any sense to him then it wouldn't make any sense to them. He couldn't just tell them that he had a conversation with a nurse that wasn't the school nurse.

"Well," He started, fixing his position on the chair. "She wasn't awake." Eriol looked at Tenji who was still in his slump. "Oh, and your brother called you an idiot. I wanted to know why though?"

Tenji banged his head on his desk, an interesting reaction to his brother's words. Eriol raised his brows asking him the silent question, before Tenji heaved a sigh and leaned back on his chair. "Sakura tends to get sick easily. She's always been that way since we were young."

"That's quite the opposite of you." Eriol replied.

"It is, but now I feel even worse." Tenji responded, placing his head on the desk.

Syaoran turned and pointed a finger at Tenji and said, "And you should be."

Tenji was quick to turn and glare at Syaoran, before retorting, "You shouldn't be talking." They were glaring at one another, with no other thoughts in mind. The others that watched shook their heads.

"Okay, so. . .?" Tomoyo butt in, getting tired of their stupid act. She glanced over at Eriol, narrowing her eyes on him. Eriol instantly knew what that look meant. She was going to ask him about Sakura later. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. Tomoyo shook her head and poked his arm, gaining another smile from him.

"I don't know. We're not close to her, and she won't let us get close to her." Eriol responded, and he knew somewhere in this conversation he was able to divert their attention from what he had learned from Sakura and that weird nurse.

Now that he thought about that weird nurse, he had never seen her before. He was sure the nurse from before was male. The nurse was definitely not a female, he would know. Every male student would know. There was the possibility that she was going to be the new nurse, but that idea was too sudden, wouldn't there have been rumors about a new nurse before one actually appeared. Or at least that's how it always was when there was a new teacher.

His thoughts were dragged back to his friends when Tenji and Syaoran sighed in unison, realizing their imaginary hate on one another was stupid. They were both sad. A state that Eriol thought was funny because it wasn't something to be sad about, and it wasn't their fault. It was unfortunate that Sakura's body was built like that.

"So? Are you guys going to try and make up with her?" Eriol asked with much curiosity. They all watched as the two boys heaved a heavy sigh. For them, that was going to be of the more difficult tasks. Getting a relationship with Sakura was a task itself. Repairing what little connection they had was even harder. Eriol knew that they knew they messed up. He just hoped that it was possible to repair something that was close to impossible to fix. It'd be by some miracle that they fixed it.

In his opinion though, Tenji had a better advantage of fixing his relationship with Sakura. The simple reason being was that Tenji was Sakura's twin brother. They were connected by blood. Blood ran thicker than water, right? Eriol shook his head, wondering how Syaoran would ever fix his relationship with Sakura. He did have Kero and Suppie, but how attach was Sakura to them?

"You guys have it rough." Eriol murmured, leaning back against his chair. "I wish you good luck to repairing your relationship with her." _Thank goodness I'm not in that position. I wouldn't know what to do._ Eriol thought as he stared at his two friends. As he stared at them, he finally realized what he had just thought, and that just meant he did have some kind of relationship with Sakura. He didn't know what kind, but it was there, and he could feel it growing. The only thing that he didn't like was the fact that he didn't know if that relationship was bad or good.


	14. Chapter 14: Here They Come

Here's another chapter for you guys...

Some of you guys were wondering if there was magic in this world, and there is, I just forgot to mention it in the earlier chapters. I meant to but I honestly kept forgetting.

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

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Sakura slowly opened her eyes and waited for her vision to clear. She didn't know how long she was asleep, and the last thing she remembered was making her way to school. When her vision cleared she found that she was in the comfort of her room, and by the looks of the lighting coming from the crack between the curtains, the day was almost at its end.

She sighed. She didn't do anything productive today. She didn't help the principal today. She didn't go visit the twins, and she missed out on school. All things she didn't want to miss out. She liked Kero and Suppie, but would she admit to anyone. . . no she wouldn't, but anyone could see that it was obvious.

Sakura sighed again. She hated herself. Ever since that had happened, she knew she wasn't acting normal. Her guard was up and she was pushing everyone away, that's not how she was. She rolled to the right and stared at her pastel pink wall. "What am I going to do now?" She questioned herself quietly.

The knock on her door, interrupted her thoughts, and she turned to look at the door. She watched in silence as the door knob twisted, before the door slowly pushed open, as if the person coming in was scared of whatever was in the room. She knew immediately who it was by the way the door opened.

Sakura pulled the covers over her head pretending to be asleep. Since it was Tenji, he'd peek in to see if she was awake. If she was he'd come in and convince her to talk. If she wasn't he step out solemnly. She laid there quietly with her eyes closed, listening as Tenji stood quietly at the door. She wondered why it was taking him forever to leave. It was strange that he hadn't left yet. Did he know that she was awake?

"Sakura?" He mumbled, testing to see if she was awake. "S-sorry."

She listened as he began to move across her room, stopping at her window.

"I didn't think about what I was going to say. It's just, the anger overcame me, and I don't think I liked something. That was probably the main reason why I got so angry." He paused, as if he knew she was awake. "I didn't like that I didn't know you. That I only saw this distance between us, after people walked into your life. It makes me angry that I. . ." She could tell he turned to face her by the way his feet shuffled across the floor. She listened as he approached her, feeling as the bed dipped next to her. "I'm sorry I got mad at you, but" There was a sudden change in his voice. It was a kind of voice he hadn't used on Sakura before. "I don't understand why your acting like this? Everyone in the group knows that the you at school is not you. We don't understand what your hiding. . . . or what your so afraid of?"

Sakura turned her body, to face her older brother by a few minutes. She opened her eyes and stared at him. She didn't understand why they couldn't just leave her alone. She didn't know why they wanted to be friends with her so badly. She was mean and cold, there was nothing good about her, but they were right. Everything was an act. An act to keep them away from her. To keep them from getting hurt from her problems. To keep her from getting hurt again.

She felt him tense next to her, confirming that he didn't know that she was awake. It made her wonder why he even apologized if she was still asleep. What if she had been asleep? There was no point in apologizing. She wouldn't have heard it.

"I. . ." He started making sure that Sakura was asleep. "I think you should trust us more, and if not us then someone. It doesn't have to be me. It can be Syaoran or Tomoyo for all I care, even your other friend in the hospital, but I prefer it be me you tell because you know… I'm your brother."

Sakura listened and only listened as he continued to talk. He talked about all the things that had happened up until now, and she was surprised when she heard that she had talked to or encountered almost all of his friends. She didn't realize it until now, but as she thought about it the more she realized how true it was. Syaoran with the twins. Tomoyo just being Tomoyo. Jamie and Chiharu at the hospital, and Rika at the convenience store. She didn't like the idea of her talking or encountering all of his friends. It only meant that bad things were coming her way, and she didn't want that.

"You know Eriol was the one who found you at the beginning of the day, but I wish it had been me because then I could have talked to you. You who is probably not even awake to hear me suffer this apology." She listened as he groaned. "And now I feel stupid. Because I'm apologizing to when your sleeping."

Sakura felt as he stood up, and left, leaving her in her room alone. It was quiet, and even though she was under her blankets, the room became cold. She silently sat up in her bed and stared at the door. What was she even doing? She could tell she hurt her brother by not telling him anything, but she'd hurt herself if she told anyone. That's what happened last time. As soon as she had told someone about her problems, everything had gone down hill.

There was another knock on her door, and Sakura found herself falling to her bed again, pulling the covers over herself. She listened as whoever it was walked into the room, not caring whether she wanted them there or not. She listened as they crept around her room before finally pulling her chair from her desk, sitting in front of her.

"Sakura." It was Touya. "Sakura, I know you're awake. Face me or I'll tear the blanket off."

Sakura internally groaned and turned to face her brother. She pulled the blanket off her face as stared at his dark eyes. There was a look in his eyes she knew very well. She often held the look, and the look was a look of knowing. He knew something he shouldn't have known, and that thought scared her.

"Sakura. How long are you two going to fight?" He asked leaning back against the chair.

"Nii-chan, we aren't fighting." Sakura said, though knew such a white lie wouldn't get past him. She watched as he heaved a sigh, and crossed his arms across his chest. He shook his head.

"Okay, you guys aren't fighting…" Touya mumbled. "But, hurry and make up with him."

"I will." Sakura mumbled. "Are you leaving?"

"You don't want me here?"

"You know what I meant."

"Well, not yet. You still having you need to talk about."

"And that is?" Sakura question raising a brow. There wasn't anything she wanted to talk about, or at least she could think of anything that needed to be talked about. She watch as Touya heaved a sigh, shaking his head.

"You know there something you need to let off your chest. I see it. Dad sees it. Hell, even Mom sees it." Touya paused and turned to look at the door. "Tenji's trying to support you. It's not helping him or yourself that you don't want to talk about whatever problems you have." Sakura was about to saying, but was interrupted as Touya continued. "No. Don't say you don't have any problems. Little Sister we all have problems. It only becomes everyone's problem when it's affecting a person they care about, and that's what's happening to you. You can't keep it to yourself anymore."

"Nii-chan, I don't have any problems. I'm as happy as can be." Sakura said smiling at him.

"I know I can see that." Touya said, startling Sakura. He then stood, putting her chair back in its rightful spot before heading towards the door. "Sakura give them a chance. Who knows maybe things will start to change. Be different. And when it does, it's not going to be the same." Touya walked out the door, leaving Sakura alone again.

Sakura growled to herself and fell back onto her bed. There was something strange about Touya's words, especially the last part. Every word he spoke felt calculated, like everything he said was meant to provoke something inside her. As she thought about Touya's words, she came to realize what it was that he was Trying to Provoke. It didn't occur to Sakura that someone else had followed after her. She had thought it had only been herself, but with her brother making it obvious that he knew her secrets, she didn't know what to do. If her brother knew, then she was sure others knew as well, and it would help the situation. It would only complicate things.

There was another knock on the door, and Sakura wondered how many more people were going to visit her room that day. She could guess that maybe one more after this person, or maybe no one, but she didn't know. With that same thought, she wondered when people actually began to care what she did. She hadn't done anything to change the way people thought about her. She was still giving to cold shoulder to everyone, and she tried not to hangout with Syaoran and them unless it was necessary, but it usually wasn't.

When the door opened, it opened slowly. Sakura smiled, when she saw her father, Fujitaka, step in, turning his back so he could close the door. Once the door had shut, Sakura watched as her father took a seat next to her, making the bed dip.

"Hey." He said, placing a hand on her head.

"Hey." She responded.

"Are you feeling better?" Sakura hummed and nodded her head, answering his question. "So, what happened to you the last night? You didn't come home, and you got sick." A smile appeared on his face, when he received a groan from her.

"Dad," She mumbled, not really wanting to talk about what transpired the other day. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I bet it has something to do with Tenji." He inquired as he raised his brows. "He didn't want to talk about it either."

"Dad, you don't have to bother with it. It's nothing important."

"Well, it's seems to be stirring up the entire family. Touya is… he's restless, and he's told your cousins. They books the first flight they could get. They're coming over from Hong Kong as we speak. They'll be here in about thirty minutes."

"Are you serious!" Sakura shouted falling onto her bed and pulling the blanket over her head. "They don't need to come. Why would Touya tell them? They won't help the situation. Thirty minutes! When did Touya tell them!"

"Sakura, they're only worried." Her father said. "Oh, there was something else as well."

"Them coming over wasn't it." Sakura sighed.

"We're going over to second cousin's place this. They've invited us to one of their parties. It's to celebrate your uncle's birthday. Your mother suggested we go since she got the 'okay' to go out to the courtyard of the hospital."

"So, mom's going?"

"Sakura, everyone's going. You, me, Touya, Tenji, your mother, and your two cousins that are coming over from Hong Kong. Everyone's going." Fujitaka could see the frustration in Sakura as she thought about the party. He had told them they had mother set of cousin's they had never before, but he never got the chance to introduce Sakura to them, since he was always busy, and they were always busy. Now was a good time to actually introduce them, since their work had settled and Sakura's mother, Nadeshiko, was feeling better.

"I'm only going because mom's going." Sakura finally growled out. "I don't have to talk to anyone do I?"

"Yes, Sakura. You are expect to talk to people if they come to talk to you." Fujitaka said patting her back. "That means you can't hide yourself away from the crowd."

"Do I have to show my face?" Fujitaka raised a brow at her statement.

"It's not a masquerade."

"But what if there are people I know there, and I feel like Tenji's gonna invite his friends because we won't know anyone."

"Sakura."

"Come on… please?" She pleaded. Fujitaka sighed before finally.

"Fine." Fujitaka agreed. "

"Are you gonna tell Touya and them as well?"

"Are you saying you don't want me to?"

"No. Maybe. Yes."

"Does that mean it's Ying Fa?" Sakura nodded her head.

"Have you told them about that?" Fujitaka shook his head.

"I'll let you keep that, but everything else must come out."

"What're you going to tell the boys?"

"That your not going."

"How are you going to convince them of that? Mom's going."

"Sakura, I'm your father. I have my ways."

"So your gonna lie to them."

"Honey, who am I doing this for?" Sakura smiled. "But I don't think they're gonna fall for it. Well maybe only Tenji will. What're you going to do if they find out?"

"As long as Tenji doesn't then I guess it'll be okay."

There was a knock on the front door and Sakura glanced at her father. Her father chuckled seeing the exhausted look on Sakura's face. They had yet to step into the house and Sakura was already tired. She didn't like it when they came over. They were always too hyper, and they always tired her out. They were seven and two year older than her. Adults, yet they had the energy of a five year old.

"Here they come." Sakura mumbled, laying back on her bed. "Can I pretend to be asleep?"

"They're just gonna come up here and bother you. Or do you not want to see Tenji?"

"Dad!" Sakura shouted, sitting up. She had thought that he didn't know, but she wrong to assume that he didn't know. If Touya had known then why shouldn't her father know. "Fine, have it your way." She said sliding her legs off her bed, before standing. She watched as her father stood as well, leading her out of the room. Sakura sighed, she was dreading the sudden visit from her cousins.


	15. Chapter 15: Mika and Yoshiyuki

Here's Another chapter

So, I know the story's not getting any clearer and that's because I'm planning to make this a long story before things start to make light, but I'll try to make thing make more sense because I agree that the story doesn't make any sense at the moment.

Enjoy!

* * *

Sakura sat on the sofa with her arms crossed over her chest. The glare she held scared no one, as her father and cousins were smiling, Touya held his own glare, and Tenji with an awkward smile. She didn't know how this came to be, but she definitely didn't like it.

"What's wrong XiaoHua?" One of her cousins asked, as though he meant to provoke her. His hazel eyes shone bright with a knowing glint. A look that Sakura was far to familiar with. Sakura shook her head and glanced at her father.

"Dad I take that back? Do I have to be here?" Sakura said as she slowly began standing.

"Sakura, sit." A chuckle was heard as Sakura sat herself down on the sofa, glaring at Mika who still held a knowing look. "Alright, first things first before you guys tackle Sakura. There's a party we're going to over the weekend. It's a cousin of ours you guys haven't met yet. . . well just you and Tenji." Fujitaka said turning to look at his son and daughter.

"Is it. . ." Fujitaka nodded his head before Touya could finish his sentence.

"Well, I say all of us, but Sakura's not going. The principal called the other day." He glanced at Sakura, who's eyes widen.

"XiaoHua, have you become a bad girl?" Mika said lifting his hand to his mouth.

"Mika, shut up." Sakura snapped.

"I see your feeling better." Tenji mumbled, not sure if he was allowed to talk to her yet.

"You'll be helping the principal over the weekend." Fujitaka said pointly to Sakura. Sakura faked a sigh and nodded her head. She wondered if it was true, she'd asked her dad later, when it was just the two of them. "The rest of you have no choice but to go. No complaints you hear." He said pointing to the boys who sat obediently.

"Wait we have to go too?" Yoshiyuki, Sakura's other cousin, said pointing at himself. Fujitaka nodded his head.

"Well, yes, since you guys are over here. And when your over here you listen to what I say."

"But we're already adults." Mika chimed in.

"Adults, to the world, but to me your still children." Fujitaka said.

"When will you consider us as adults?" Yoshiyuki asked.

"When I see you have kids and a wife."

"That doesn't consider people adults." Mika protested.

"Well, if you want me to consider you as an adult than that's what you need to do." He smiled as the two men groaned. "Anyways back to the party. You guys get there and behave. I don't need to watch you guys because you guys are old enough to not be told what to do."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it uncle." Mika said brushing Fujitaka off. "We know. We won't mess around, or at least, try to not misbehave." He paused for a second and glanced at Sakura, before smiling. Sakura groaned and fell against the sofa. They were now going to move on to the topic of her. "So, what's this I hear from Touya?"

"Yeah, I hear you and Tenji got into a fight." Yoshiyuki said. "That's something that happens rarely between the two of you. Usually it's you and Touya." He pointed between Sakura and Touya.

"Guys, can we not." Sakura said as she stood. "I don't want to talk about that. If we are. . . . I'm going to my room." She watched as Mika stood and scampered behind her, placing his hands on her shoulder. She felt as he applied a little pressure, suggesting she sit down again. Sakura felt as her butt hit the sofa, and another groan come out of her "Come on, you guys make it sound like we don't fight."

"You guys don't." Mika stated, taking a seat next to her. "Sakura, when was the last time you fought like this?" Mika smiled when Sakura had to think about it. "See, you can't even remember. Whenever you guys fight it's not like this."

"Thinking about it, what made you guys fight?" Yoshiyuki questioned, raising a brow. "I can't think of anything that would make you guys fight like that."

"Guys you guys don't have to act like that. We're done fighting." Sakura turned to face Tenji. "Right?"

Tenji gapped at his twin, before quickly nodding his head. "Yeah. We're not fighting."

"See."

Mika stared at them incredulously before nodding his head slowly. He didn't believe them. Tenji was too awkward about everything and Sakura had her guard up. He had known them all his life. He knew everything about them, so when he said they fought they fought, there was nothing that could tell him otherwise.

Mika smiled and placed his hands on Sakura's shoulder, once more, bringing her closer to him. He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, watching the other's faces. He knew her little secret, it was easy to see. He knew why she wasn't going to this party, in fact, it wasn't that hard to see through the lie her father had told. They were all going to this party, but she was not going as herself.

Sakura pushed away from Mika and glared at him. It scared her for a moment when he suddenly said that he knew her little secret. She had lots, but the way he said it made it seem like he knew more than just a little secret. She hit him, and scowled, earning a heartfilled laugh.

As she watched him, she felt a stare. She turned to face the group noticing as Touya stare intensely at her. She raised a brow and turned to look behind her wondering if there was something there. There wasn't. She looked back at Touya, who was talking to Tenji, a smile on their faces as they joked about something. A questioned traveled through her mind as she watched them. Had she just been imagining things? She was sure Touya was staring at her.

She shook off the feeling that Touya had given her and watched her cousins. As she watched them she realized she was the only female there, and that made her wish that she had a female cousin, or sister. It didn't matter if the sister was older or younger, she just wanted a sister. The thought of another sibling had her eyes traveling to her twin.

She should probably apologize to him. He was only worried for her. She understood that, yet she got mad at him. The more she thought about it the more she felt guilty. She could have told him, but there was a gut feeling that if she had told him things would start to change, and she didn't want to know if it was a good change or a bad change. Change would start unwanted events, good and bad. If nothing changed, nothing started, and all her worries wouldn't resurface.

Sighing she watched as Mika and Yoshiyuki teased Tenji. She wondered when Mika had moved to bother Tenji. He must have moved because he wasn't getting anything from her. She continued to watch as Tenji sat there with his arms squished together, awkward. She knew Tenji, although the more outgoing of the two of them, didn't know how to handle the older cousins. She was always the one who manage to shoo them away when they bothered them. Seeing his helpless state she felt the sudden need to save him, just as he had done for her many times before.

"Hey. Leave him alone." Sakura barked, silencing the laughter that came from the boys. "What?" She questions when she received odd looks from the boys. As she stared at them Mika's face changed. His face held a mischievous smile, and the glint in his eyes told her that whatever he was going to say was meant to bother them. She watched as Mika moved to sit next to her again, and she only rolled her eyes as he did.

"Being all friendly again?" He questioned, and Sakura only ignored him as she noticed the hopeful look on Tenji's face. "Thought you guys were fighting? Or was it my misconception?"

"Mika." Sakura said holding up a hand. "Don't start, or I'll talk about something touchy with you as well."

"I don't have any topic that I can't talk about or won't get to me." He said with a triumphant look.

"He says, but tries to change the topic when dad brings up marriage." She smiled when his triumphant look disappeared.

"You can't force that kind of stuff." Mika whined. "There ain't nobody for this." They all smiled when he stood and gestured to himself.

"You can't force it yes, but you can only try to start it." Sakura replied. "Now stop it and sit down. No one wants to see that." Sakura winked at him as he sat down next to her.

"You are…"

"Not evil. I just know how to handle you." Sakura finished for him. "Now here's a good question. Why don't you have a girlfriend? You're good looking, and nice." Sakura waited for an answer. They all waited for an answer.

Mika smiled awkwardly and ran a hand through his hair, his eyes glued to the floor. Sakura noticed the look Mika gave. It was a look she often gave to others, so it was a familiar look. It was a look that said that he was keeping something from them, and he didn't want to tell them for specific reasons.

For her it was easy to figure out what it was that he could have been hiding, and she was sure it was easy for anyone else in the room as well. They all spent their lives keeping things from each other, so it wasn't hard to figure things out once it was shown.

Sakura figured that it had something to do with him having a girlfriend or not. The way he had become awkward when it was mentioned, meant something to her. It only took her a moment to figure out why he had become so awkward about it, like he meant to say something but never found the chance to. A smile adorn on her face as she stared at him, and she could tell that he didn't like the look she gave.

"Why can't you be normal?" He suddenly questioned, scowling at her.

"Me? I am normal." She replied. Sakura watched as he turned his attention to the floor and muttered something under his breath. It wasn't a moment later did he turned to look at her again.

"No. You can read minds." He said pointing to his head. "Like… like you have magic or something."

"Magic? If I had magic I'd know if you had a girlfriend or not." Sakura replied.

"But you do know." He pointed an accusing finger at her.

"Know what?" She asked.

"That I have a girlfriend." He shouted. Sakura smiled, when he realized what he had said. She was glad that he had said it. It was more convincing if the person himself said it rather than her.

They all watched as he sighed in defeat, sitting himself next to Sakura. They didn't expect to get a sudden confession of him actually having a girlfriend, and it was thanks to Sakura that that had finally come out. Mika glanced at Sakura and poked her, earning a squeal from her. The face he held was a look of one with revenge. Petty revenge, but revenge.

"So? This girlfriend… is she real?" Sakura asked poking back at him.

"Of course she is. She lives right here in Tomoeda."

"But weren't you in Hong Kong?"

"Yeah… ever heard of long distance relationship?"

"And you were planning to tell us when?" Fujitaka intervened, his brows raised with interest. "Or were you not going to tell us?"

"Eh…. You're making me the bad guy?"

"Depends." Fujitaka said, before turning to look at the other three boys in the living room. "And what about you three, any other secret relationships?" It wasn't that he didn't want them to be in a relationship, he just wanted to know that his sons and nephews were happy with the people they were with. He wanted to at least know that the girls that they were dating were good people.

"No, all clear here." Touya mumbled, while Tenji shook his head, but when nothing came out of Yoshiyuki, they all gave him a surprised look. Yoshiyuki had someone to call his own, that was more surprising than Mika having a girlfriend here in Tomoeda.

"You guys are definitely going to be against it." Yoshiyuki said. "That's why I didn't tell you. I'm kind of waiting though."

"What is she seven?" Sakura teased.

"No." Yoshiyuki shouted, turning to look at Sakura who only smiled at her dear older cousin. "Seventeen."

"Ten years." Sakura mumbled, surprised at the large age difference.

"Yes, ten years. I'm kind of waiting for her to graduate, then tell you guys, but guess that's not a plan anymore. It'd be more acceptable if she was an adult."

"Well, can't really say no." Fujitaka said staring Yoshiyuki. "Just don't do anything stupid beforehand, got it." Yoshiyuki nodded and Fujitaka sighed.

"Well, at some point introduce them to us will you. I'd like to see these girls for myself, since they are dating you two."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura smiled and watched as Fujitaka stood. "I'm going to go visit your mom, tonight. I'll be back tomorrow morning. Don't do anything while I'm gone. Sakura, Tenji, go to sleep. You guys have school tomorrow."

Sakura stood from her spot and began making her way to her room again. She felt as Tenji stared at her back as she left, wondering when he was going to stop. He made it seem like she didn't know he was there, and the more he kept acting like that, the more it reminded her of a dog. He was like a sad puppy deprived of attention. Sakura stopped and turned around.

"You, my room, now." She commanded pointing her finger at Tenji. Sakura quickly turned around and rushed to her room, only then realizing that the four of them hadn't moved. Were they going to continue talking? And if they were, what were they going to talk about?


	16. Chapter 16: Apologies

Here's another chatper.

I didn't proof read this chapter or the last couple of chapters so if there's anything wrong with grammar and spelling I'm going to assume that your brain will automatically fix it, and so I'll apologize for the bad grammar and spelling.

Now enjoy, and sorry if the story still isn't making sense.

* * *

They sat awkwardly in silence, staring at one another. It had been a whole day since they had last talked, and to Tenji that was like an eternity. He didn't think not talking to Sakura was a big deal until it happened. He didn't think he was this attached to his little sister. He always thought he would be fine without talking to her. He had gone days without talking to her once before long ago, and he didn't have a problem with it. Maybe the fact that they were fighting made it feel like an eternity.

He sat with his back straight as he stared at Sakura. She sat on the edge of her bed, with her legs kicking back and forth and her arms at her side, gripping the edge of the bed. He noticed her brows were furrowed, as if whatever she was thinking about was making her feel upset. Tenji only watched her as she thought, feeling like she had forgotten that he was there.

"Uh. . . Sakura?" He started wanting to know why she had called him there. He smiled a boyish smile when she glanced up at him. She looked as though she had been caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing.

"Shh." She replied, holding up her hand. "I'm trying to think."

Tenji closed his mouth and only watched as Sakura thought about what she was going to say. This had been the first time he's seen Sakura act like this. She was usually impulsive and straightforward. She usually knew what she wanted to say and how to say it. If she was going to apologize she'd genuinely apologized and she always knew what she had done. And with this thought he realized how much he didn't know his little sister. He had thought he had known her. They grew up together. What could he have not known about her? They were like best friends. He looked at the ground suddenly feeling a little sad.

"Tenji?" Her worried voice entered his ears, and he glanced up. Her worried look was a familiar look. It was a look that he often received when they were younger. He watched as she moved from her spot and kneeled in front of him.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "I haven't said anything yet."

"It's nothing." He said with a smile trying to ease her worries.

"It's not nothing. I didn't even say anything yet and you were already getting sad."

"Sakura, it's okay. I just thought about something. That's all." She narrowed her eyes on him, not really believing what he was saying. He smiled at her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Sakura, it's nothing to worry about. Just a thought that's all."

He watched as she huffed out a sigh. "If I'm about to apologize and tell you things, then why not tell me whatever this thought is. It's only fair right. A thought for a thought." Apologize. He felt like he should have been the one to apologize. He had dug into something that he shouldn't have, or at least until she was ready to tell him. He sighed and nodded his head.

"Fine." He muttered. He watched as she waited patiently, something that he should have had when talking to her. "It's the same thought that I brought up when we argued." Tenji paused, watching as Sakura thought about what he was saying. Slowly, she nodded her head, telling him to continue. "The thought of not knowing you makes me. . . upset. We've grown up together, yet just this year I don't know anything about you." He realized then that he had said the same thing he said when they argued. It was strange, but he knew that she wasn't going to blow up on him. Not this time at least.

He realized right away that this talk was going to be the same as their argument. It was going to be the same yet different. They weren't going to become confused and angry. Impatient with the other. They were going to actually sit and talk about it. Talk to each other in a calm manner and understand one another. Something that they didn't do while they argued in the halls the other day. They didn't have any time to think it out. Everything just spilled.

"Ten-kun, not knowing me, shouldn't upset you." Sakura replied, slowly. "If anything, you do know me the best. Like you said we grew up together. We were born together." She smiled, trying to ease his worries.

"It doesn't feel that way." He mumbled. "Your friend in the hospital, I didn't know of her until Jamie told everyone. Kids. Your good with kids, but I've never seen you around any kid. And the forest. You're suddenly not afraid of ghosts anymore."

"Ten-kun, I will forever be afraid of ghosts." She replied, shaking her head, her smile never leaving her face. "And I've always been good with kids. Those days I'm helping the principal that's what I'm doing. I'm babysitting his grandchildren, it's nothing special."

"And that friend from the hospital?"

"She's exactly what she is. A friend. There's nothing more to say about her."

"Then. . ." He started unsure if this topic was alright to touch. The last time he brought it up, it ignited a argument between them, and another argument between the two of them was not something he wanted.

"Ten-kun. I'm not. . . not ready yet." Sakura answered, knowing exactly what he was going to ask. "Just wait. Maybe one of these days when I feel more comfortable I'll make more friends. But not now. Now would be. . . now would make my life feel crowded. It already is with Mika and Yoshiyuki here."

"Then. . ."

"It isn't for sure yet. I'm still thinking something through." Sakura interrupted. "I don't know what will happen, so just let me take my time. When I figure things out, then maybe." Sakura watched him as he thought, and she hoped that he wouldn't pry into it any further. She didn't know what she was going to tell him if he did. She had surprisingly said everything she wanted to say except for one thing, but she'd get there after she eased his worries.

"Okay, think about whatever it is you need to. I'll. . ." He paused for a moment before continuing. "We'll wait for you."

We'll? Who was that? Who else was going to wait for her? She couldn't think of anyone else who would be willing to wait for her to make up her mind. Sakura nodded her head and smiled at him once more. Now it was her turn to question him before she finally apologized to him. She felt like it was her fault they had argued, and if anything it probably was because she kept secrets from him.

"So, what was that?" She started, knowing that he wasn't going to understand what she was saying. Just as she had expected he stared at her with a confused looked. "In my room earlier. You know when you came in to apologize." She giggled when he gapped at her with disbelief.

"If you were awake then say something." He shouted, his face turning red.

"What's the point in apologizing to a sleeping person?" She teased, standing up. Sakura moved to her bed, listening as Tenji followed after her. She sat on her bed, feeling as the spot next to her dipped as Tenji sat next to her. "If they're asleep, they're not gonna hear you, you know. You're supposed to apologize when the person is actually conscious. That way the apology will get acknowledged."

"You know, that's not all that nice." Tenji said with a sigh. "I really thought it through."

"You couldn't wait for me to be awake?" He opened his mouth to say something, but when he couldn't find the words he shut it. "Well, it's okay. I heard it. . . and I'm sorry too. For not tell you anything, I'm sorry."

Tenji didn't know what to say. It was normal for her to apologize, so it made no sense on why he couldn't say anything to her. He'd usually tell her that it was alright, that it wasn't just her fault, that he was at fault as well. He could only ponder about her apology, and that was something he hardly did. He usually accepted the apology right away because he didn't like fighting with her. He took a deep breath and thought about it. She had told him what she thought, but she hadn't told him about why she couldn't make friends. Had that thought still bothered him. He told her that he'd wait for her to figure things out, and with that thought left in his head he nodded and finally accepted what was to happen next.

He'd wait just like he said, and maybe something would change. "It's alright Sakura. I. . . rushed into things as well. Next time I'll be patient."

There was a long comfortable silence after his short statement. The two thought about what the other had said, and both still feeling a little guilty. Guilty for two different reasons, but still guilty. Sakura fell back on her bed and sighed. Tenji raised his brow, questioning her actions. She turned her body to face him and smiled at him. He smiled back realizing how much he loved seeing Sakura smile. It's what fit her the best.

"So, what now. Mika will definitely say something." Tenji said.

"Who care about what he says, we have things against him as well. His girlfriend for example. We can just bring that up and he'll surrender right away." Sakura watched as he nodded, before a look of realization crossed over him. She raised a brow waiting for him to say whatever it was that he realized.

"What're you going to do about Syaoran? I heard you got into a fight with him as well."

Sakura sighed, she had forgotten about that. They didn't get into a fight, he just talked about something that she didn't want to talk about. It was the same thing Tenji tried to talk to her about. It was something that she wasn't going to figure out right away. Those kinds of things were dangerous. It'd hurt you easily and the wound took forever to heal.

"I don't know. I'm not. . . all buddy buddy with him."

"Not buddy buddy with him? Then what's your relationship if you guys aren't friends?" Tenji asked. He was sure that they were on the path of friendship. If anything Syaoran had been the closest person to Sakura who wasn't family, not counting that friend of hers in the hospital. Anyone who watched them from afar could tell that there was something there.

"I don't know. Two strangers who have a mutual feeling on the ones they take care of."

"That's too long. And if it's like that I could stretch it and say there's a shorter phrase for that."

"And that is?"

"Friends." Tenji stated. He watched with a smirk on his face as Sakura sat up and shook her head. She was adamant on saying she wasn't friends with Syaoran. Anyone one could guess that they were friends. Why she denied it, was a questions itself. A question that he would ask later because he didn't want to pry, well at least not yet.

"That's not friends." She retorted.

"I said if I stretched it, then it is." Tenji replied, not phased by her sudden outburst. "Well, your gonna have to solve it somehow. He feels really bad for whatever it is that he did. He was depressed about it all day. And knowing him he's going to be all awkward around you trying to apologize."

"Well it's not like I don't feel bad about it." Sakura mumbled quietly to herself, turning her back to Tenji. Tenji stared at her back wondering what it was she was talking about. He was sure that she meant to say it quiet enough so that he couldn't hear it, but if that was the intentions she didn't do it very well. He shrugged his shoulders, and reminded himself to ask her about it when he felt it was right.

"Sakura, it's getting late. I'mma go to my room, okay?" He informed before standing up from her bed.

"Okay." She replied, turning to face Tenji. "Don't forget to do any homework you got today." She reminded, knowing that he didn't get any time to do his homework.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Tenji said brushing her reminder off. "Night."

"Night."

As soon as Tenji had left her room Sakura sighed. She felt bad for not telling him, but even if she had told him, he wouldn't be able to understand. Plus it was something that didn't even seem possible, it would be understandable if he didn't believe a word she said, but at the same time the thought only made her sad. So she wasn't going to tell him. She was just going to continue as she always had. She'd stay quiet and hopefully things wouldn't continue to change. Change was bad.


	17. Chapter 17: Weekend Party

Hey peoples, here's chapter 17.

I know it's been a while, but this chapter was a pain in the butt to write because I didn't know how to write it.

It was planned to be in the story but it took forever to write.

* * *

Sakura watched as the boys ran around getting ready to go to the party. She smiled noticing as they all looked handsome. She wouldn't have it any other way. They were related to her of course, so they had no option but to be handsome when dressed up all nice. She watched as Tenji approached her a scowl on his face. It was obvious to Sakura on why his face held that scowl. It was easy for anyone to tell why he was so upset.

"Why aren't you coming?" He complained sitting down next to Sakura.

"Because I have things scheduled with the principal." Sakura replied.

"Can't you just tell him that something important came up?"  
"No." Sakura said. "Now, stop scowling and smile."

Hearing footsteps coming from the stairs the two turned to watch as Touya came down, fixing his tie as he did. He glanced at Tenji and Sakra before continuing on his way to the kitchen. Sakura smiled as their older brother disappeared into the kitchen.

"You guys really need to dress up more often. I'm sure maybe then you guys would get some girls." She stated facing Tenji again. "Unless you guys also have hidden girlfriends as well."

Tenji light punched Sakura, who only laughed. "That's not funny." His scowl immediately disappeared when their father came into the living room. He took a seat across from Sakura and fixed his cuffs before settling down. He looked at Tenji and Sakura before smiling. It wasn't long before Mika, Yoshiyuki, and Touya had joined them in the living room.

"Yes, all my sons look handsome." Fujitaka started, taking a look at all of his sons, including Mika and Yoshiyuki. The two of them were practically his sons, as they did grow up with them for a majority of their lives. It was only five years ago did the two move to Hong Kong because of their parents. "Now then, your mother will be joining us a little later. I have to go get her, so I'm going to drop you guys off before going to pick her up. Be nice while I'm gone, and there will be someone else joining us as well."

"And who is it?" Tenji asked.

"Ying-Hua." Fujitaka answered. Tenji raised a brow, and glanced around realizing that everyone but him knew who that was. "She'll arrive with your mother and I. We have to go pick her up from another place before going to the party. We'll be a little late, so again behave."

Touya, Mika, and Yoshiyuki nodded their heads, before standing. Tenji imitated them as if he knew what was going on before, following after them as they left to the car. Fujitaka stood as well, glancing at Sakura for a moment before following after his sons. Sakura smiled before standing up. She had to get ready she had plans.

Tenji stepped out of the car and stared at the large building. This was a house. A building a person lived in. It didn't seem like that to him. It was far too large for anyone to live in. He was sure a building this large was lonely. There was no way any family could fill this house up. Tenji stared in awe for a while before noticing that Touya and his cousins were already on their way up the steps. He still couldn't get over the fact that they were related to someone this rich.

"Alright, don't make yourself look like a fool." Touya said, patting his back. Tenji watched as Touya smiled before putting on his mask. Mika and Yoshiyuki followed after him, putting their mask on and giving him an encouraging pat on the back. Tenji nodded to himself, and put on his mask before quickly following after them. He didn't want to want in alone, that would make him feel even more uncomfortable.

Tenji stood at the back of the room, watching as everyone interacted. He felt out of place for he was not as rich as anyone else here. Sure his suit looked nice, but anyone could look nice if they wore a suit. A sudden uproar, caught Tenji's attention. He turned to look in the general direction, finding that a couple had arrived. Even with their masks on, Tenji could tell who they were. It was his father and mother, and that girl that his father had said was coming as well. He smiled, feeling a little more comfortable, and quickly made his way towards them.

When he reached them he found that he wasn't the only one to recognize them. Touya, Mika, and Yoshiyuki had also recognized them and were already by their side. There had also been another couple that had approached them. He noticed their daughter following closely behind, and he raised a brow wondering who exactly these people were, but he knew he was going to find out sooner or later.

"Fujitaka, Nadeshiko, how long has it been?" The woman of the couple asked, giving his mother and father a hug.

"Sonomi, it's been far too long." His mother replied.

"And I'm glad to see that you've been doing well." The male said, also giving a his mother a hug, while he shook his father's hand. "And these fine young adults must be your children." The man said taking a look at all of them.

"Well, most of them." Fujitaka replied.

"Oh? And what do you mean by that?"

"Well, these two are my son." Fujitaka gestured to Tenji and Touya. "And the other three our their cousins. Unfortunately my daughter had other plans and couldn't come."

"Well, that is very unfortunate, but there will be more opportunities in the future." The man said with a smile. "Now then, Tomoyo, come here." The man said stretching his hand back. Tenji perked at the name wondering how many people in Japan were also named Tomoyo. "This is my daughter."

"Tomoyo Daidouji." She pronounced with a curtsey. Tenji's mouth dropped open, not believing what he was hearing. He never thought he would be related to Tomoyo Daidouji. Sure he knew she was rich, but he didn't think he was related to her.

"Tomoyo." Tenji quickly said, happiness in his voice. He was happy to find out that he actually knew someone here. It was a strange meeting, but knowing someone made him happy. "I can't believe we're related."

"Oh, Tenji. How unexpected." Tomoyo replied, just as surprised as he was.

"Tomoyo, you know Fujitaka's son?" Her father asked.

"Yes, we're friends at school."

"Well, what a small world." Her mother said. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"Well, let's continue." His father said introducing Touya, Mika, and Yoshiyuki. It was only when the girl his father brought along was introduced, did he suddenly become interested in the introduction process. He himself didn't know who this girl was. All he knew was that she was related to them in someway.

"This is my niece, Ying-Hua." Fujitaka introduced. Ying-Hua curtseyed and smiled before she too said her name just as Tomoyo had. Feeling a nudge in his side, he glanced at Tomoyo. Tenji shrugged answering her unasked questioned.

"It's nice to meet all of you." Ying-Hua said before receding next to his father.

"Well then, Kyousuke, let's leave our children to themselves and catch up. There are so many things I need to hear from you." Tenji watched as his father and mother left with Tomoyo's parents, while his brother and cousins left to talk with some others.

"I never would have thought that we were related." Tomoyo started, after everyone had left. "It's a strange thought."

"And why is it strange?"

"Because it is. We've been friends for a while, but we still didn't figure out we were related. Not only that but what are the chances that we would be related. There's seven billion people in the world, the chances that we're related are pretty small."

"Well, whether you like it or not, we're related."

"I didn't say I didn't like it. It's just a strange thought." Tomoyo said, watching the crowd enjoy themselves. As she watched the crowd a certain young girl caught her eyes. A curiosity she's only ever felt once poked at her. It was the same curiosity that made her want to become friends with Sakura. Her eyes followed Ying-Hua as she stepped out of the room and onto the veranda. "I'll be back. I've found someone interesting." Tomoyo said as she scampered off towards the veranda, leaving Tenji there alone and awkward.

Tomoyo swiftly moved through the crowd, towards the veranda. She wondered what Ying-Hua was doing out there when she could be in here. It wasn't that it was cold, it was just strange. As Tomoyo quietly approached Ying-Hua, she was surprised when Ying-Hua turned around to face her. It was as if she knew Tomoyo was coming up from behind her, and Tomoyo knew that she wasn't being all that loud. Tomoyo watched as Ying-Hua smiled greeting her. Tomoyo returned the smile and came up next to the girl.

"So, what brings the young miss to accompany me." Ying-Hua questioned, turning to look off the veranda, which only looked off towards the long driveway.

"Mm, the person accompanying wasn't all that interesting. I found someone more fitting for that role." Tomoyo simply replied, not really caring that she called Tenji an uninteresting person.

"I don't think the person you were talking about would appreciate being called uninteresting." Ying-Hua said with a smile.

"Well we've known each other for a while so it's alright." Tomoyo said brushing off what she said. "So, how's the party?"

"Want my honest opinion?"

"Only your honest opinion."

"Kind of mundane and boring." She replied, leaning her arms on the rails of the veranda. "Sure it's extravagant, but I think it's too much. It's as I always say simple is best." Tomoyo nodded her head, agreeing to Ying-Hua's statement.

"Well father likes it this way, so I can't really say anything about it." Ying-Hua nodded her head in understanding.

"Eh?" Ying-Hua questioned voice said. "Who's that?" She turned to look at Tomoyo and pointed her finger off the veranda. Tomoyo trotted up next to Ying-Hua and stared off the veranda. The two of them watched as several cars pulled up in the driveway. Tomoyo was about to shrug her shoulders, when she remember who it was.

"Ah, they're fashionably late." Tomoyo said grabbing onto Ying-Hua's hand, noticing instantly as Ying-Hua tensed for a moment. "They're a couple of friends of mine. I didn't want this party to just have my parents' friends, so I invited some of mine." Tomoyo gave Ying-Hua a smile trying to ease her uncomfort. The two watched as Tomoyo's friends stepped out of the cars. It took them a moment to adjust themselves before walking up to the front of the building.

Tomoyo glanced at Ying-Hua, who she knew was still uncomfortable, before calling out to her friends. Her friends stopped and stared at Tomoyo before trotting over to her. Since the two of them were on the veranda, they weren't that high up. Tomoyo could tell right away who was who, their masks didn't hide anything. She smiled as the two men who stood in front looked up at her. She liked the feeling of final being able to have them look up at her.

"Hey." Tomoyo commented. "Eriol, I see that you guys are late."

"Some of us forgot." Eriol replied with a smirk on his face and a shrug. Eriol turned, watching as his friends, besides Syaoran began to leave.

"Well, come inside. I'll greet you guys at the door." Tomoyo said with a smile, turning to leave after Eriol had turned away. As she began to leave, she noticed that Ying-Hua wasn't following after her. She stopped and turned to look at where she previously stood, and watched Ying-Hua. She was staring at something. What it was, Tomoyo didn't know, and that only made her want to know. Tomoyo walked back over to Ying-Hua and followed her gaze, surprised to find that Syaoran still stood there.

"Hey, Syaoran you coming in?" Tomoyo asked, breaking their staring contest.

"Y-yeah, uh, b-but who's your friend?" He asked, stuttering his words. Tomoyo raised a brow. It was unlike Syaoran to stutter. He was always confident in what he said, and if he was nervous or embarrassed, he never let it show in his words. Tomoyo smiled learning something new about Syaoran, well not new, but confirming that Syaoran wasn't immune to girls. It was just certain girls he wasn't immune to.

"You'll meet her inside." Tomoyo responded grabbing onto Ying-Hua's wrist and pulling her away, noticing as Syaoran didn't turn away. She assumed he did once they had disappeared from his sight. Tomoyo smiled and switched her position with Ying-Hua wrapping an arm around her arm.

"So? What was that?" Tomoyo asked, glancing at her new friend/relative.

"Hmm?" Ying-Hua responded as though nothing had happened.

"Come on who are you kidding? Don't pretend I didn't see you staring at him." Tomoyo said. "If you move faster I'll introduce you to him."

"That's not it."

"Oh really?" Tomoyo said stopping them.

"Really."

"You don't sound convincing to me." Tomoyo smiled, and continued on her way, dragging Ying-Hua with her.

It wasn't long before they reached the entrance, and found Eriol. They noticed as they approached that Tenji had also recognized them, and he looked happier than he was before. It made Tomoyo feel bad about what she had done before, ditching him for Ying-Hua, but it was a good thing, she got to see something that she didn't expect to see.

When they reached the group Tomoyo introduced Ying-Hua to them, and she noticed as everyone warmed up to her right away. As the night passed Tomoyo began to realize that Ying-Hua fit in more than she thought she would. It was like she was never new to the group. Ying-Hua talked, laughed, and even began joking around with them. Tomoyo knew from the beginning that something felt odd about this Ying-Hua girl. It wasn't a good or bad kind of odd, it was a strange kind of odd.


	18. Chapter 18: Sakura Advice

Guess what! Another chapter!

I know it's been a while, and it felt like I've stopped writing this story, but I haven't so no need to worry. There will be more, and I will finish this story. I'm not about to be one of those people who just stops writing a magnificent story, if you think this is one. If your still reading great! If not, my fault.

Hope you still remember what happened in the last chapter.

Now enjoy!

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Tomoyo watched as Ying-Hua laughed at something Syaoran had said. It wasn't the most interesting thing, but it had somehow made her laugh. Everytime Tomoyo looked at her eyes they seemed to have some kind of light in them. It was a light that Tomoyo was familiar with, and one that she wished a certain girl, who wasn't here, had. Tomoyo sighed, and glanced over to Tenji, who was still angry at her for ditching him. It wasn't anything serious, just a little hate, that wouldn't last for much longer. She smiled at him and he shook his head before smiling back.

Tomoyo was happy that her friends were having a good time. She didn't think this party for her father was going to be any fun. The same boring formal parties. It was in it's own way, but at the same time it was different. She wasn't standing next to her father being introduced to people she knew she wouldn't ever meet again, nor was she standing alone in the back by herself. She smiled once more to herself, before reapproaching her friends.

"Yeah, he was kind of annoying but he was always there for me." Ying-Hua said with a smile. Tomoyo instantly noticed the sad look in her eyes as she spoke of the guy.

"Was?" Syaoran questioned.

"Y-yeah, he gone now, well not gone, but he's different now." Ying-Hua replied. "But it's all in the past now so, it doesn't bother me anymore."

Tomoyo noticed as Tenji's older brother and cousins approached them. She raised a brow, watching as one of them tapped Ying-Hua's shoulder. She looked surprised for a moment before she returned to her natural composure, before dismissing herself from the group, following the man who tapped her shoulder. Tomoyo smiled and walked over to Syaoran who continued to stare in the direction she had gone. She nudged his side, catching his attention.

"What?" He asked.

"Don't ask me. What about you? What was that?" Tomoyo questioned.

"What do mean?"

"You and Ying-Hua. Aren't you. . . ."

"I am. Just it's hard when she doesn't give a care about you."

"I think not." Syaoran raised a brow. "I think she cares. I mean she's still helping you Kero and Suppie right?" Syaoran shrugged. He didn't know if she was still helping with them. He hadn't talked to her since they argued, and he didn't think he was going to ever get another chance to talk to her with how high her walls were.

"She'll come around. . . . hopefully." Tomoyo said with a reassuring smile.

"But what if she doesn't?"

"Then that makes me question you." Tomoyo turned to walk away leaving Syaoran alone.

It wasn't long before the party ended and everyone was heading out. Tomoyo said her goodbyes to her friends as they climbed into the car. When they all disappeared into the cars, she watched as they drove off, leaving her standing there alone. She didn't really accomplish anything that night. She was going to get to know Ying-Hua better, but she had disappeared after Tenji's brother or cousin tapped her shoulder. She didn't get to spend anymore time with that girl.

There was something about Ying-Hua that rang familiarity. The way the girl stood and talked were familiar. She didn't know why this girl was so familiar, but she was. Tomoyo was sure she'd know right away if she had met Ying-Hua before. No one could forget a girl like that. She fit in quite well, and was easy to talk to. She made the room brighter and less boring. She was probably one of the many reasons why this party wasn't all that boring. She had brought up so many different topics, and always kept a conversation going, even when it felt like they were going to run out of things to talk about.

"Well." Tomoyo turned around at the voice. It was Tenji, and with him were the three other men that arrived with him. "We're gonna get going as well. Kind of late. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya." Tomoyo replied watching as they began to leave. "Tenji." Tenji stopped and looked at her, brows raised, questioning her. "Ying-Hua, where'd she go?"

She watched as Tenji shrugged, "She left, after she had a talk with my brother."

"Oh, so that was your brother." Tenji nodded. "You know why?" He shook his head. Tomoyo heaved a sigh and smiled. "Well thanks. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah. I had a good time. Well, not at the beginning." Tenji said with a smile. "See ya."

"Bye." Tomoyo said waving as he turned. It wasn't long after that did she and her family left as well. As they left Tomoyo watched as the building grew smaller and smaller. She closed her eyes and the image of Ying-Hua and her friends talking was clearly visible in her head. This night with Ying-Hua felt like a dream, like something that had been missing in their had finally come back, but they only knew her by name and what she acted like at the party. They didn't know who she was. This night was like a dream.

The next morning Tomoyo found herself staring in her closet at all the clothes that hung in there. Her hands were on her hips and her brow was cocked. She had woke up this morning with a message from Eriol, and because of that she was standing in front of the closet, but when she opened her closet, there seemed to be something off about it. There were more dresses in the closet than before. She always made sure to keep her closet cluster free. Everything always had a place, and if they didn't fit anymore, she stored it away in the storage room.

So, here she stood wondering where all these dresses had come from. There was no way she had gained all these dresses last night because she had been at the party, and the party went to two in the morning. She sighed before climbing into her closet and began pulling the dresses out of the closet. She sorted them out, creating two large piles. Dresses that she made and were hers, and dresses that she knew she made, but weren't hers.

Tomoyo wondered where these dresses had come from. She had made all of these dresses yet, the pile of dresses that weren't hers she knew she's never seen or worn. She knew she made these dresses because there was the small symbol on the inside of the dress that she put on all her dresses. A symbol of a cherry blossom petal behind a music note.

A knock on her door distracted her from the dresses, reminding her that she had other things to do. She walked over to the door, and opened it surprised to find Eriol standing behind the door. She opened her mouth to say something, but was stopped as he cover her mouth and walked into the room, making himself comfortable on her bed.

"Okay, make yourself comfortable." Tomoyo said following after himself.

"And this?" Eriol asked, gesturing to the dresses.

"Dresses."

"I see that, but why?"

"Well, that piles is mine, and that pile were made by me." She said pointing to the two piles.

"Made by you, but not yours." Tomoyo nodded, her gaze fixated on the dresses.

"Not only were they made by me, but I've never seen any of these. All beautiful, but I can tell this wasn't made for me." She turned to look at Eriol, puzzlement on her face. "Who would I make a dress for if not for myself? I've actually never had any thought of making anyone a dress."

"And I didn't know you made your own dresses. I didn't know―" He stopped think, and felt how wrong those words felt.

"Didn't know what?"

Eriol shook his head, before responding to her question. "Nothing." Eriol glanced at the dresses. There was a sort of familiar feel to them like he's seen them before. It felt like these dresses had years worth of memories on them, but at the same time there was nothing. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "So, what you going to do with the dresses?" He watched as Tomoyo stood and walked over to the dresses. She picked one up and examined it with careful eyes. A moment later he found her shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't know." Tomoyo mumbled hopelessly. "I can't just throw them out. I made them, and I'm sure they look nice on someone. I don't know who though." Tomoyo tossed the dress back onto the pile and dropped on her bed next to Eriol. "Well, I know one thing."

"And that's?"

"I have to put my dresses away." Tomoyo said standing up once more. She turned to look at Eriol, and poked him in the chest. "And your helping."

"What? I didn't even―" Tomoyo quickly shushed and gave him a dress.

"The faster you help me. The faster we can get going." She smiled when Eriol sighed in defeat and stood. The two quickly cleaned the floor of the dresses, before leaving Tomoyo's house. Eriol glanced at Tomoyo as they exited her house, and climbed into a car. The car that would take them to their friends, who waited for them at King Penguin Park. They were going to discuss on how to get Sakura to be their friend. Yes, their first attempt hadn't worked, but Tomoyo wasn't the kind of person to just give up.

It wasn't long before the car pulled up to the park, and the two of them made their way to King Penguin Park. It wasn't a rushed walk to the playground, but they did agree on arriving before twelve, and they were late. Eriol glanced at Tomoyo who walked quietly. She was thinking, and it was probably about Sakura. Eriol slightly nudged her, watching as she stopped to look at him.

"What?"

"Don't think by yourself." He replied, stopping to look at her. "There's two of us here and more waiting. Can you at least wait until then to start thinking. It's easier if you have people to bounce ideas off of."

"I guess." She said. She smiled at him and the two continued on their way.

The two walked in a comfortable silence, and it wasn't long before they reached the playground. They noticed as they approached that everyone was already there, everyone but Jamie. Tomoyo glanced at Eriol and raised a brow. He shrugged his shoulders and the two continued on their way to their friends sides.

"Well, I see the scheming couple has arrived." Chiharu announced with a cheeky smile. Tomoyo shot her a playful glare, and Chiharu rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"We're not a couple, nor do we scheme." Tomoyo retorted, a smile on her face.

"Yes, yes, and Takashi doesn't lie." Chiharu smiled, when Tomoyo shot another playful glare at her.

"Anyways, where's Jamie?"

"Here." They turned at the voice. It was Jamie, and with him was a girl with long black hair and bright ruby eyes. Syaoran quickly stood and made his way over to Jamie, skipping over the fact that Jamie was there.

"Meiling, what're you doing here?" Syaoran asked. "Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital, you know for―"

"Syaoran, I'm fine. Doctor said that it's alright for me to come out. Better than staying cooped up in that bed." Meiling sighed, seeing the worried look in his eyes and the quick glances he shot at Jamie. He wasn't going to give up until she gave him an answer to his first question. "Well, I heard from Jamie that you guys were going to meet up and talk about Sakura. And I wasn't about to be left out. You're talking about my friend."

Syaoran sighed and nodded his head. "Okay, your here already, so we're not gonna chase you away."

"And it'd be nice to know what it's like being friends with that girl." Chiharu said. "You can tell us how you guys became friends."

"I guess." Meiling replied. "Well, what are you guys trying to do?"

"You already know the answer to that." Rika replied. "We're trying to become friends with her, it's just there's an impossible wall to climb over."

"What have you guys tried?"

"Talking to her. Eating lunch with her. Watching kids with her. Following her. Stopping her from going into a forest. Returning a book to her. Watching over her while she's sick." Jamie listed. "Only two of us haven't really interacted with her."

"And they are?"

"Takashi and Naoko." Jamie answered.

Meiling sighed and shook her head, glancing around at the large group. "You guys are making this sound like you guys are trying to befriend a wild animal. Not a person. You guys do realize she's a person right."

"We know it's just. . ." Tomoyo started, being shushed by Meiling as she held her hand up.

"You guys said you guys tried talking to her." Meiling asked, they nodded. "Well, what did you guys talk about?"

"Why she won't be friends with us, well, more like them." Tenji answered.

"Well where did that get you guys?"

"An argument."

"Have you guys talked to her about anything but that?" A silence fell on the group and Meiling shook her head. These guys were hopeless. "Well, now I know why she doesn't want to be friends with you guys."

"You do?" Syaoran asked.

"No you dope, but I can understand." Meiling retorted. "You guys really haven't talked to her about anything that wasn't about being friends with her?"

"Well, Tomoyo tried, and that got her nowhere." Chiharu stated, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Okay, did she ever leave in the middle of Tomoyo talking?"

They all sat to think about that question, and it dawned on them that Sakura had never once left Tomoyo alone by the tree. Finding a new place to eat was different. She found a new place before Tomoyo knew where she was at, but she never once did leave Tomoyo while she was talking. Sakura looked annoyed and a little angry, but even then that didn't make her leave. They shook their heads, answering Meiling's question.

"Well, there you go. There's still a chance to become friends with her. She hasn't left yet, and I'm sure, knowing her, that she won't be leaving for a while, unless you guys do something."

"What about you?" Naoko asked, tilting her head a little. Meiling raised her brow and pointed at herself. "Yeah, you. How did you become friend with her?"

"Well, for one I didn't go to her." Meiling started. "She came across me herself." Meiling noticed the confused looks appear on their face. "Well, she stumbled into my room at the hospital by accident. She was looking for someone, and happened to come into my room."

"What was she doing at the hospital?" Rika asked, glancing between her friends.

"Well, she was there to visit her mom." Meiling answered.

"Her mom's in the hospital. . . Your mom's in the hospital?" Chiharu asked turning to look at Tenji.

"Well, yeah, but don't worry. She's fine. She'll be getting out soon enough." Tenji replied awkwardly. "Enough about my mom, what about Sakura?"

"What about her?" Meiling questioned.

"She talked to you?"

"Yeah. She talked to me. We hang out all the time. Ask Jamie." Meiling said turning her head to look at Jamie. Jamie nodded his head, agreeing to her statement. "It's normal for friends to hang out, so stop making it seem like it's a rare thing."

"We're just surprised that Sakura is. . . uh. . . involved with people besides her family." Syaoran said.

"Well, you guys can't keep acting like that because eventually she might be hanging out with you guys," Meiling retorted. "So what you guys do tomorrow, is talk to her. Start off. . . normal." She gave them a smile, before asking Jamie to take her back to the hospital. She had didn't have anymore reasons to be there. Jamie nodded his head, and said goodbye to his friends before walking off with Meiling.

As they two left, they left in silence, leaving everyone there to think about what she had said to them. Meiling smiled to herself thinking that she had done a good job. She would help them if it meant Sakura's good image getting out there. Sakura was too nice to be hated for a misunderstanding. She couldn't wait until she left the hospital.

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Alright, how was it? Great? Good? Awesome? Terrible? Still super confusing? All of that? Hopefully, it'll make sense some time soon.


	19. Chapter 19: Something Off About Her

Hey people! Updated! And a week after the last one, but don't expect an update every week. I just managed this time to update.

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

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They all realized it the moment they came to school that morning, and Tenji had long realized it that night he got back from Tomoyo's party. It was subtle at first, but after you realized it, it didn't leave you. Everyone who saw her that morning saw the same thing, Sakura walking quietly, looking up at the tree as though something was there. She didn't seem angry and seclusive like people had always seen her, and the aura she exuded made her feel somewhat approachable, but no one approached her afraid that if they did they would destroy the mood that kept her this way.

Syaoran and Tomoyo had seen Sakura that morning on her way to school, and as they watched her make her way to the school, a strange feeling overcame them. She was calm and lost in thought. Her gaze was fixed on the trees that lined the sidewalk, and she didn't care about the people that stared at her. She was lost in her own world, completely different from the one she was in last week. As she came to the entrance gate, where they stood waiting for their friends, she stopped for a moment and stared at the school before continuing on. They only watched her, as she continued, not noticing the glance she gave them.

After the first period, during the break, Tomoyo and Rika walked to their next class, with their books in their arms. They talked quietly about what they were doing in their next class. Just as they came to the bathroom, Sakura came stumbling out of the bathroom. They abruptly stopped, watching as she quickly prevents herself from falling to the floor. She sighed and dusted herself off even though she had not fallen, and turned to face them. Her eyes widen slightly before muttering an apology before scurrying past them. Tomoyo glanced at Rika who shrugged her shoulders.

Eriol and Jamie were in PE when they had an encounter with Sakura. Both the girls and boys had PE outside today. The boys were split into four teams, playing soccer against one another. The girls, on the other hand, were running. At one point Eriol and Jamie had turned to watch the girls as they sprinted from one side of the track to the other. They noticed Sakura was much faster than the rest of the girls, leaving them far behind in their short run. They ignored their game, watching as she dashed past the end, coming to a quick stop. She took large deep breaths in and held her hips with her chest and gaze pointed towards the sky, as though she was thinking about something. After relaxing, she stretched her arms and legs before quickly glancing there way. The glance was short and it wasn't long before she had run over to the side to take a seat.

Eriol glanced at Jamie, who in turn glanced back. They didn't think she would turn to look at them. That had caught them off guard. The look in her eyes didn't hold any malice, but something else. Eriol wasn't too sure if he saw it correctly, but he was sure he saw the curiosity in her eyes. Eriol sighed, watching as Jamie shrugged a shoulder before they both decided to get back into their game of soccer.

It wasn't long before lunch arrived, and they had all gathered around Syaoran's desk again to talk. They talked about many things ranging from the new family restaurant that opened recently, or if they were going to hang out after school. As they talked about what they were going to do after school, Syaoran's eyes traveled out the window. He noticed right away that she was nowhere in sight, and wondered where she could be.

"Oooooi? Syaoran?" Syaoran turned his head and glanced at Jamie who leaned back in the chair he was sitting in. His arms were crossed over his chest and a knowing smile was plaster across his face. "Wondering where she is?"

"When is he not wondering where she is?" Eriol responded for him, earning several chuckles from the group.

"Shut up," Syaoran replied as he stood, walking past Eriol. He didn't forget as he passed Eriol to smack him across the head.

"Hey! That hurt." Eriol cried out, placing a hand on the back of his head.

"Well, you deserve it." Syaoran shot back, as he continued to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Takashi asked though they all knew where it was he was going.

"Bathroom." He replied.

When Syaoran finally got out of the room he sighed, listening as the other students talked and laughed in the hall. He knew for a fact that he didn't convince his friends that he was going to the bathroom. They all knew where he was going, and he was glad that they didn't really tease him about it, but if he had somehow convinced them that he was going to the bathroom then that in itself was pretty amazing because everyone knew he was a horrible liar.

Syaoran heaved a sigh as he reached his destination, stopping in front of the door. His hands shook as he reached for the door, opening it slightly, allowing him to peek into the room. He was surprised to see the Sakura was still sitting in her seat in the middle of the room. Her head rested on her right palm, while her elbow rested on her desk. Her eyes held a distant look, as she looked towards the front of the room, ignoring everyone who walked by her.

Syaoran heaved another sigh before walking into the room, carefully watching Sakura as he stepped into the room. He noticed as she didn't react to the loud rush of noise when he stepped into the room. Everyone questioning why he was there. It was only when he had moved closer to her did she realize he was there, and now she was openly staring at him. He quickly and politely dismissed those who surrounded him and stepped in front of Sakura's desk, noticing the look in her eyes. It was a sad look, a look he felt that didn't fit her. He took a breath and stood in front of her desk, waiting for her to lash out at him, tell him to leave her alone, or ask him what he wanted in that cold tone he was used to, but she never did. She only sat in her seat, staring up at him as though he was the only thing in the room

"Uh. . . hey?" Syaoran lamely stated raising a hand. He hoped that would get something out of her, but it didn't. She only sat still waiting for him to continue. "Kero and Suppie wanted to see you. They haven't seen you since that night. . . and they've been bothering me about it. They go 'Wan see Sakra!' over and over. Do you think you could stop by tonight. . . or something."

"Mmhm. . . sure."

"If you really can't then I understand," Syaoran quickly replied, not really processing what she had said. After a few moments of silence, her words finally settled in his mind. "Really?!"

"Yeah. . . I'm. . . not really doing anything." Sakura replied before she stood walking past him. Syaoran watched as Sakura left, happy that she agreed to come over that night. He thought she would say she was busy because apparently she always was. His smile that was not so evident became obvious when she stopped at the door to look back at him, before leaving completely. He couldn't believe he managed to convince Sakura to come over. He thought it would take more to convince her, and he was sure that his friends wouldn't believe it either since everyone knew how Sakura was. She wasn't the easiest person to deal with, but lately, it was becoming easier and easier to talk to her, even if it was only a few words.

When Syaoran had returned to his classroom, he only found the boy sitting around his desk. He raised a brow as he walked over to them, taking a seat in his chair. They could all see the silent question he was asking them.

"They went off to the bathroom. You know how girls are. They. . . go together like a pack." Jamie answered, leaning his chair back.

"And Sakura? How was she?" Tenji asked, ignoring the smiles on the faces of the other three. Syaoran rolled his eyes and shook his head. He hated how they loved teasing him. They knew how transparent he was, making it easy for them to read him, which made him an easy target when it came to teasing people. The pecking order was always him first before anyone else, and it usually ever only started and ended with him. Though he always found it weird how they never teased the girls. He just assumed it was because the girls could be evil sometimes.

A smile appeared on Syaoran's face thinking about how evil the girls could be, and shook his head, glancing out the window. His eyes instantly traveled to the slight movement of the people by the courtyard, and he immediately recognized them as the girls who had left for the bathroom. The four of them were pushing each other, as though urging one another to go do something that the others weren't going to do. He watched as Chiharu pointed a finger at Tomoyo before tossing her thumb in the direction og the courtyard. His eyes followed the path to where she point and found Sakura sitting in her usual spot. He wondered when she had got there, since it wasn't that long ago that he had talked to her.

Rika, Chiharu, and Naoko, stared at Sakura, wondering how they could approach her without scaring her away or running away from her. Tomoyo only watched as the tree girls pondered on what to do, and wondered when they would go back since she had unfinished food waiting for her at her desk. Suddenly the three turned to look at her eyes wide with a mischievous look. Immediately she understood what they wanted and quickly shook her head not really wanting to do whatever it is they wanted her to do. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Sakura, she just wanted them to be able to approach Sakura themselves.

Tomoyo understood it could be hard because Sakura could be difficult, but if they really wanted to friends with her she wasn't going to help them, or at least that's what she thought. "So, why me?" She asked as they trapped her between them and the courtyard.

"Well because she knows you. She won't just run away. . . You have experience with her." Chiharu replied.

"My experience with her is nonexistent, and don't make it sound like she's a job."

"Well according to Meiling, your not as nonexistent asa you think."

"And plus, we don't know how to talk to her." Rika chimed in. "We're all not like you Tomoyo." Tomoyo raised a brow silently asking Rika what exactly that meant, putting a smile onto the other two girls faces as Rika shook her head.

"Anyways, you've seen what she's like when I'm with her. She ignores me most of the time. It's a sad feeling, the thought of not important to someone your talking to."

"Just give it another go."

"'Give it a go' she says, like it's easy to do." Tomoyo mocked, something that was new to them, even to herself. "Fine, but I'm coming back when I feel like nothing's happening."

"Yeah, yeah. Just go. We'll wait here." Tomoyo gave them an incredulous look before turning around to leave.

Tomoyo came to an immediate stop, when she turned around confusing the three girls behind her. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Sakura wondering when Sakura had gotten up or how Chiharu, Rika, and Naoko missed her approaching them. Tomoyo quickly turned around asking them what to do when they realized who was stopping Tomoyo from her quest. "Uh, hey." She quickly said taking a couple of steps back not wanting to intrude in Sakura's personal space. As she did she noticed a look pass over Sakura's face before returning to normal

"Hey?" Sakura responded, looking past Tomoyo. "Can I get pass?"

"Oh! Sorry." Tomoyo stepped away turning to the side, to watch as Sakura walked past all watched as she quickly scampered down the hall, as if trying to escape from their gaze. Tomoyo sighed, when Sakura disappeared from sight. She wondered if anything they did was ever going to be right.

After school, Tomoyo stood under the tree in front of the school gates waiting for the others ro arrive. There was something that needed to be discussed between all of them. It wasn't urgent, but it bothered everyone in a way, and the only person that might have known something was Tenji. It wasn't long before all of them arrived and they began discussing their encounters with Sakura that day. It was only odd since Sakura had seemed to have some kind of interest in them.

As they talked, Naoko glanced up from the group, spotting Sakura as she walked towards them. She silently pointed Sakura out, and they all turned to watch her. Sakura walked with her head tilted to the sky, with her arms behind her back and her hands intertwined. She held dazed look as she walked, suggesting that she seemed to be thinking about something, They watched as she sighed, letting her head fall before coming to a short stop as she noticed them watching her.

She quickly got herself together and continued on her way as though she hadn't stopped and noticed them, though the speed she had been walking at had quickened, indicating that she had indeed noticed them, and was now trying to escape their prying eyes. When she reached the gate she stopped again, catching their interest once more before quickly shaking her head. It was the same as that morning when she arrived to school. She looked as though she wanted to say something, but decided against it. Sakura heaved a sigh, before quickly glancing back the large group that still watched her, before quickly leaving the school premise.

"Well, that was odd." Takashi mumbled, glancing around at the group.

"Yeah, but she's always been odd." Eriol responded.

"She's never been odd. She's been cold." Chiharu chimed. "That, definitely shows that something was off about her."

When Syaoran got home at six with the twins, walked the twins to the living room before wandering over to the kitchen to cook dinner. He quickly began preparing for diner while the twins watched TV. As he silently worked around the kitchen, a knock on the door stopped him in his movements. He looked up at the clock, reading it as six-thirty, before rushing off to get the front door. As he passed by the living room, he noticed as Suppie and Kero dropped what they were doing and followed after him finding whatever he was doing more interesting than what was displayed on the TV.

At the front door he felt as Suppie and Kero gripped his leg and waited for him to open the door. He smiled, wondering why they came when they were gonna hide, before opening the door for the stranger. His eyes widen and his mouth fell ajar as he stared at Sakura who stood silently in front of him. He hadn't actually thought she was going to come over, but here she was with her arms behind her back and her gaze focused on the ground.

Syaoran felt as two pairs of hands let go of his legs before attaching them onto Sakura. He quickly glared at the twins for the betrayal, before greeting Sakura and letting her in. Silently she nodded her head, and picked up Suppie, while leaving Kero for him to handle. He stared down at the boy who seemed to be at loss before silently picking Kero up and following after Sakura as she walked towards the living room.

Sakura settled onto his couch, and he placed Kero down next to her, while Suppie sat in her lap. He didn't know what they were supposed to do now, she didn't seem to be in the mood to speak, though ever since he's met her she never has been.

Sakura took a seat on his couch, with Suppie in her lap, and turned to look at him as he set Kero besides her. He wondered what he was supposed to do now, now that she was here because it looked as though she wasn't in the mood to talk. Well, to him she's never been in the mood to talk.

"Um. . . you watch them and. . . 'll go finish making dinner?" She nodded her head and he silently went off to the kitchen finding the atmosphere around them not heavy.

In the kitchen Syaoran quickly made dinner, and set the table. He stepped away from the table and looked and his food and smiled. He was proud of himself. He never thought he'd learn to cook, since he always went out with his friends to go eat. He still couldn't believe that people would leave their kids with strangers even if they were his cousins. He's never met them and so they were practically strangers. He heaved a sigh and turned to go get Sakura and the twins.

Syaoran came to an abrupt stop, and stared at the silent girl who peeked in on him from the entrance of the kitchen. He quietly scratched his head, somehow feeling a little embarrassed that she was watching him. "Dinner's ready." He awkwardly announced, watching as she nodded her head and walked back to the living room.

It wasn't even seconds later when he heard the giggles from the twins and the sound of a roaring Sakura down the hall. In seconds the three of them popped into the kitchen with smiles on their faces. He smiled watching as Kero and Suppie ran to him, using him as a barricade. They quickly attached themselves to his legs and laughed, peeking out at Sakura who stood a good distance away from them. He quickly glanced up at Sakura who was smiling at the twins before stepping away from them.

He listened as they squealed trying to take cover behind him as he moved, and Sakura quickly used the opportunity to walk around Syaoran, scooping Kero up in her arms. Syaoran quickly turned around, and as smart as Suppie was, tried to escape from Syaoran as Syaoran grabbed at him. As soon as Syaoran grabbed the wiggling and giggling child, he lifted the boy up into the air, earning a squeal from him.

"Alright, time to eat, we can play later." Syaoran announced placing Suppie into a high chair. Just as he glanced up to watch Sakura place Kero into the high chair across from Kero, their eyes had met, and a small smile formed on Syaoran's lips, as Sakura quickly looked away before taking a seat at the table.

The four of them ate in silence with the occasional giggles as both Kero and Suppie threw food across the table at one another. The food war lasted for a little while longer before Sakura quietly scolded them, while Syaoran was made to clean their mess that landed on the table and floor. It wasn't long before they resumed their silent dinner.

After dinner Sakura and Syaoran decided who would bathe the kids before putting them to bed. Sakura had won their short rock-paper-scissors contest, leading Syaoran to bathe the twins and put them to sleep. The bath was short, and Syaoran had taken an unintentional bath with them. As soon as they had finished Syaoran brought them to their room where he quickly dried their hair and placed them in their beds, where they refused to sleep.

"Kero, Suppie. Come on, it's sleepy time."

"No." They argued kicking the blanket off every time Syaoran pulled it over them.

"Sakra?" Suppie said.

"She has to go home. She can't stay here." Syaoran replied.

"No!" They whined.

Syaoran sighed. It was clear to him that they knew exactly what it was he was saying, and was now being annoying about. This was probably the main reason he hated taking care of them. They took forever to go to sleep and they were always asking for Sakura like he didn't matter to them. He was definitely going get back at them when they were older, but right now that was impossible.

Syaoran sat there pondering on what to do, not noticing as Sakura had come to the room, and watched him as he struggled at putting the kids to bed. "God, they are so much easier to handle when she's not here, but at the same time it's so much easier to watch them with her here." He quietly ranted looking at the twins again.

"Come on, go to bed. You'll see her again."

"Wrealy?" They said in unison. Syaoran nodded his head, but wasn't't so sure. He just needed an excuse to get them to go to bed. As though knowing he wasn't really telling the truth they began kicking their blankets off and tried climbing off the bed. Syaoran groaned and grabbed Kero as he climbed off one-side of the bed, before turning to Suppie who climbed off the other side.

Syaoran paused in his actions and stared at Sakura as she stood in the doorway. Great. She's seen another pitiful side of him. He couldn't even get them to go to bed. Feeling as Kero wiggled out of his hands he quickly gathered his attention on the kid, noticing that Suppie had escaped to Sakura.

"Dun go!" Suppie cried, attaching himself onto Sakura's legs.

He watched as she smiled for the umpteeth time, and bent down to hug the boy. Syaoran let go of Kero, who waddled over to Sakura to join their hug. She pulled away and stared into their eyes, softening her already gentle smile. "Don't worry." She said as she placed her forehead on theirs, soothing their needs to be close to her, "I'll be here tomorrow." She pulled away once more and gazed into their eyes, before picking them. Syaoran wasn't so sure what all that was about, but only watched knowing that it would have taken longer to put them to bed if he had interrupted her.

She walked them to the bed and placed them on the bed. She quickly pulled the blanket over the twins, and bent forward to give them each a kiss on the forehead. "Really, I'll be here tomorrow so stop giving me those looks. I'll go with Li-kun to pick you guys up from school." She promised, as she sat on the bed watching them with adoring eyes

Sakura sat on the bed, telling them out of the world stories, and thirty minutes later the twins had fallen into a deep sleep. Sakura had left as soon as they had fallen asleep leaving him alone and awake in the house. Syaoran thought about what Sakura had said to the twins. Was she really going to go with him to pick them up tomorrow? Was she really going to go that far in order to make them happy? But he was happy, and if he had to be honest, he was really grateful that the twins had ended up with him. It gave him reasons to talk to Sakura, and then things like this happen, where he didn't have to ask her to come over. She willing came over, though it might not have been for him but she was still coming over to his place, and with all that was said it was odd. And it worried him since something was off about her.

By the time he fell asleep, the clock had read twelve forty-one.

* * *

How was it? Are things seeming to get better?

Well, I hope you liked it, so see you next time.


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